Independent MLA of Morva Hadaf disqualified

GANDHINAGAR: Bhupendra

Khant

, the independent MLA elected from

Morva Hadaf

constituency in Panchmahal district, has been disqualified, for submitting an invalid caste certificate to contest the election in 2017 from a seat reserved for a member of the scheduled tribes (ST).


Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi announced his disqualification on Friday, saying the decision was taken according to directions of governor O P Kohli.

Khant, who was earlier with the Congress, contested as an independent after the party refused him the ticket and won. He is the son of senior Congress leader Vechat Khant, who recently contested the Panchmahal

Lok Sabha

seat, the results of which are awaited.

Soon after Bhupendra Khant’s victory in 2017, his opponents filed a peition in the Gujarat high court, alleging that his caste certificate, which says he is from the ST community, is invalid. He lost the case after the tribal development department held that his certificate was not valid.

After the Election Commission of India (ECI) accepted that Khant had forged documents following Gujarat high court case, the ECI informed the governor of Gujarat, to process his disqualification. The governor on Thursday wrote to the speaker and on Friday the speaker notified Khant’s disqualification.

Khant is the third MLA to have been disqualified/suspended in the last few months. Ahead of the Lok Sabha election in Gujarat, Congress MLA from the Talala constituency, Bhagabhai Barad, was disqualified after he was given a sentence of more than two years by a local court in a mining scam. The BJP MLA from Dwarka, Pabubha Manek, has also been declared disqualified by the Gujarat high court, over a deficiency in his nomination form. Despite repeated attempts, Khant was unavailable for comment.