Rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Alka Lamba was on Thursday disqualified from the Delhi Assembly by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel “on grounds of defection”, said a statement issued by the Assembly secretariat.

“Alka Lamba, the Respondent in this case, an elected Member of the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, elected from Chandni Chowk (Assembly Constituency No. 20) has become subject to disqualification under Paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution,” the statement said.

Lamba’s disqualification takes effect retrospectively from September 6, following which the Chandni Chowk assembly constituency seat now falls vacant, the statement said.

In a series of tweets posted later in the evening, Lamba indicated that she will contest the assembly elections in Delhi, likely to be slated by early-2020, and thanked her supporters saying she will continue fighting for their rights.

On Thursday, Lamba said, “My journey with AAP ends here. I am thankful to my supporters who have always given me strength to take up fights both inside and outside the party. Now, though I will no longer be there is the Assembly for almost another five months, I will continue my fight amid common people for their rights. I will not let my supporters suffer. And those in power must remember that they have disrespected people’s mandate.”

Lamba is the fifth AAP leader to be disqualified from the Assembly for defection in the last two months. The other four are Mishra, Sandeep Kumar, Anil Bajpai and Devendra Sehrawat.

The decision on Lamba’s disqualification was taken on the petition of AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj. The AAP said that Lamba claimed during the hearing called by the Speaker that her resignation on Twitter should not be taken seriously.

“She also claimed that her own announcements of joining Congress Party should also be not taken seriously. She has been doing this every fortnight to hog media headlines and has been fooling people of Chandni Chowk almost every day. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the Speaker has finally finished her daily soap opera. Now she is no more an MLA and hence, is free to change parties every day on Twitter,” said Saurabh Bhardwaj, chief spokesperson of AAP.

Earlier this month, Lamba had tweeted about quitting the AAP and joining the Congress.

However, when asked about the same by the Speaker on September 18, before disqualification proceedings were initiated against her, she had admitted to have tweeted about her resignation but not writing any official resignation letter to the party chief Arvind Kejriwal. She also told the Speaker that she was yet to sign in for primary membership in the Congress, she had said in a video clip uploaded and circulated in WhatsApp.

Earlier, Lamba had said she was open to the possibility of contesting the assembly elections in Delhi as an independent candidate.

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