By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: NCP State convenor Sanbor Shullai has lodged a formal petition to Assembly Speaker Charles Pyngrope demanding the disqualification of 11 NCP legislators who had defected to the National People’s Party (NPP) which is led by former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Agitok Sangma.
“I have lodged the petition demanding disqualification of the 11 NCP legislators as per the directive of NCP central leadership,” Shullai, who is also the Deputy Speaker, told reporters after submitting the petition to Pyngrope here on Friday.
According to Shullai, the petition was filed to comply with the directive of the NCP central honorary secretary SR Kohli.
“Actually, I was supposed to file a petition against 12 NCP legislators. But following the demise of Chokpot legislator Masonsing M Sangma, I have filed the petition only against 11 legislators,” the Deputy Speaker said.
Meanwhile, NCP legal counsel Devajit Saikia said that as per Article 21 (A) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, elected members cannot defect from their original party during the tenure of the Assembly.
“As per the reports in the media which had appeared since August 24, it is apparent that the 11 legislators have defected from the original political party (NCP) from which they had contested and won in the 2008 Assembly elections,” Saikia, who is also the State Additional Advocate General, said. He said that it is further confirmed that the defected legislators have merged with NPP since there was no denial on their part to contest the reports in the media.
“The claim of 11 legislators that they merged with the NPP, floated by the erstwhile general secretary of the NCP is not legal as despite the legislators joining NPP, the NCP continues to exist being a national party.”
“The 11 legislators only represent NCP at the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. They have no authority to merge with other party since the merger would have to take place at the national level with NCP being a national party,” Saikia said.
While referring to the case of former BJP legislator AL Hek joining the Congress, he said that the problem in the case of Hek was that the party had only one legislator in the Assembly.
“As per the Tenth Schedule, the complaint would have to be made by the legislator of the Assembly and not by the member of the party,” he said.
Saikia, however, said that they would be waiting for the action to be taken by the Assembly Speaker before their next move.
Meanwhile, the Speaker said that he would first examine the petition filed by the NCP before taking any action.
“Now with the complaint coming from the member of the House, the petition filed against the NCP legislators becomes official,” Pyngrope said.
Pyngrope, however, informed that so far he is yet to receive any letter from the 11 NCP legislators confirming their merger with the NPP.
“As per the records available with the Assembly, they are still NCP legislators,” he said.
Earlier, NCP’s national general secretary DP Tripathy had lodged a complaint to the Assembly Speaker against the 11 NCP legislators.
Pyngrope had, then, maintained that that the complaint should have come from any member of the state legislature and not from the party central leadership.
As per the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules 1988, section 6(2) “A petition in relation to a member may be made in writing to the Speaker by any other member of the House”.
The Speaker cited the case of former BJP legislator from Pynthorumkhrah, AL Hek, who had defected to the Congress earlier, saying that in Hek’s case nothing could be done after the complaint since the complaint had come from the BJP and not from any member of the House.
Since Hek was the lone BJP member, nobody was left in the House to lodge a complaint.
But as far as NCP is concerned, the situation is different. The party still has two members who have not shifted their allegiance to NPP – Deputy Speaker Shullai and Rangsakona MLA Adolf Lu Hitler Marak.