Rebel AAP MLA wants Delhi Assembly Speaker to recuse from hearing case

NEW DELHI: Rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra on Tuesday wrote to Ram Niwas Goel urging the Delhi Assembly Speaker not to attend the hearing of his MLA membership disqualification case. In a separate letter, Mishra requested the Speaker to summon witnesses, including AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, and senior party leader Kumar Vishwas, for questioning.

Mishra asked Goel to recuse from the hearing on the grounds that the latter was an “interested party” in the case. Goel, who is also an AAP MLA, has been hearing Mishra’s and other rebel legislators Devendra Sehrawat’s and Anil Bajpai’s case on the same matter.

AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj had moved a petition requesting the disqualification of Mishra, alleging that Mishra raised slogans and ran a campaign in favour of PM Narendra Modi during the Lok Sabha election campaign. In response, Mishra stated that the same logic should be applied on Arvind Kejriwal for raising slogans in support of Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and other Opposition leaders. Mishra has named Kejriwal, Vishwas, Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai, Anna Hazare, Mayank Gandhi, Yogendra Yadav among those as witnesses in the case.