By IANS
Chandigarh : Former Haryana chief minister and dissident Congress leader Bhajan Lal was Tuesday disqualified from the Haryana legislative assembly under the anti-defection law.
Haryana assembly Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian passed the order here.
Bhajan Lal was last elected from the Adampur seat in February 2005.
Congress legislator Shadi Lal Batra moved a petition in January seeking his disqualification after Bhajan Lal and two other Congress legislators, Rakesh Kamboj and Dharampal Malik, publicly joined the newly-floated Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) in December last year.
Bhajan Lal’s younger son and dissident Congress MP from Bhiwani, Kuldip Bishnoi, floated the new party.
Both Rakesh Kamboj and Dharapal Malik, considered close to Bhajan Lal, were disqualified from their assembly seats March 13. Earlier, the three had sent their ‘post-dated’ resignations to the speaker, seeking that these be effective from June 1 as they apprehended they would be disqualified. However, the speaker went ahead with the disqualifications against them.
Bishnoi recently submitted his own resignation from the Lok Sabha to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The speaker is yet to decide on his resignation letter.
Bhajan Lal was seen as a dissident Congress leader after he was pipped to the post for Haryana chief ministership in March 2005. Bhajan Lal led the party to a landslide victory in the assembly polls as the state Congress president.
The reigns of the new Congress government in Haryana were given to Bhupinder Singh Hooda, leaving Bhajan Lal sulking.
His elder son and Kalka legislator Chander Mohan was elevated to the post of deputy chief minister in the Hooda government. However, the Congress could not placate Bhajan Lal and Bishnoi.