Dubey said, ‘We do not disqualify (a sitting member), we only declare vacancy (of the respective seat). Disqualification had already been done by the court order.’ Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in a tweet in Hindi said, ‘(We) welcome the decision of Speaker Satish Mahana ji to annul the membership of Vidhan Sabha of Azam Khan. Whenever the bye-elections are held on the vacant seats, the BJP’s lotus will bloom.’ The Rampur MP-MLA court had on Thursday convicted Khan in a 2019 hate speech case and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment.
