Mawsynram MLA in dilemma over status in House
SHILLONG: Mawsynram legislator PN Syiem, who has been suspended from the Congress party, sought a clarification from the Speaker of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on Friday on whether he is with the Treasury bench or with the Opposition.
Syiem raised the point before the Speaker since he was suspended by the Congress for alleged anti-party activities on October 14 last year.
Syiem said that people are questioning him if he is with the Treasury bench or the Opposition after his suspension from the Congress.
“Going by the sitting arrangement, it seems I am very much with the Treasury,” he said.
The MLA also sought a clarification from the speaker on whether he is qualified to sit in the Ruling room or the Opposition room after his suspension.
Syiem also brought to the notice of the House his irony of being treated as non- Congress man outside the Assembly, even as he added that in the Assembly he is treated as a member of the Congress. Syiem also cited the case of political leader Amar Singh, who was expelled from his party, to seek clarification on his status in Meghalaya Assembly.
In his reply, Speaker AT Mondal said that the Assembly Secretariat has not received any intimation from Congress till date about his suspension, so he would continue to be in the Treasury.
According to Mondal, as per convention, suspended members would be attached with their original party to which the members belong.
“A separate seat is allotted only if a legislator is expelled from the party,” Mondal said. In the course of the discussion, the MLA also asked the Speaker if he can be allotted a separate room to which the latter replied that he can sit in any room of the Assembly including the Speaker’s.
Senior Congress leader from Nongpoh and president of Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee, DD Lapang stood up and said that it is a matter of common sense to note that suspension of the member from the party is an internal affair of the Congress.
“The matter is very simple. Suspension is internal matter of the party and expulsion from the party is different,” Lapang said.
According to Lapang, Syiem’s stand that he is not a Congress member outside the House is not right.
