BHOPAL: After meeting the Assembly Speaker over disqualification of Pawai BJP MLA, the leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava on Friday said that he would accompany Parhlad Lodhi to the House for winter session.
Earlier, the senior BJP leader met Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati seeking revocation of the disqualification Lodhi’s membership from the house. The meeting, which lasted over 20 minutes, ended inconclusively as the Speaker reportedly told the LoP that the decision was as per rule and justified.
Later talking to media, Bhargava said that he would go along with Lodhi to attend the winter session of the Assembly scheduled next month. Terming the decision as undemocratic and against the principle of natural justice, Bhargava said that the Speaker acted out of political vendetta.
Later Prajapati addressing the media claimed that his decision was just. The speaker said he was hurt by allegations being levelled against him in the media. “I am not a common man, I am sitting on the Constitutional post, one should understand this before raising allegations against me,” said the Speaker.
Justifying his decision, he citing the Act said, ‘Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the People Act 1951 makes it clear that if a public representative is sentenced to an imprisonment two years or more, shall be disqualified. Membership remains until appeal, hearing and decision is given only on imprisonment for less than two years’.
