Mumbai, May 11 (IANS): The Maharashtra opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday termed the Supreme Court verdict as "falling short of justice" while drawing attention to the misuse of the Governor's office by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to destroy a political rival.

Now, the Speaker (Rahul Narwekar) must act immediately as per the Supreme Court order, but feels hopes are dim for the "Rs 50-crore per MLA spender BJP to relinquish power through Constitutional means", the AAP said.

"The Supreme Court ruling is a watershed moment for Indian democracy. The manner in which the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's government was forced out of office with the connivance of the (then) Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari or the partisan approach of the Central agencies was blatantly wrong and a travesty of justice," said Mumbai AAP President Preeti Sharma-Menon in a scathing statement.

She said that the algorithm for dismissal of elected opposition governments includes BJP's shameless power grab, a pliant governor, compromised central agencies, brazen horse-trading and incapacitating the Speakers office.

"Though the Supreme Court verdict fell short of delivering justice, they adequately made it clear that the conduct of the Governor was completely suspect and just stopped short of saying that the BJP misused the Governor's office to derail an elected government and to destroy a rival political party," pointed out Sharma-Menon.

AAP Working President Ruben Mascarenhas warned that if the BJP's infamous Operation Lotus 2.0 operation of Maharashtra is not stopped, then it will be used by the BJP to illegally usurp power from legitimately elected Opposition parties' state governments.

"The Constitution of India is supreme and the rule of law must prevail," urged Mascarenhas, while calling upon the Speaker to take his decision on the disqualification of 16 MLAs as soon as possible, as per the Supreme Court directives.