SHILLONG, Nov 29: The Congress, which has been beleaguered by the desertion of 12 of its sitting MLAs, appointed Ampareen Lyngdoh as the Congress Legislature Party leader on Monday and also filed a petition with Assembly Speaker, Metbah Lyngdoh seeking disqualification of the 12 MLAs who have ‘merged’ with the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
A Congress delegation led by the new CLP leader and accompanied by MPCC president, Vincent H Pala and two party MLAs submitted the petition to the Assembly Speaker.
Talking to reporters later, the CLP leader contested the claims of the 12 former Congress MLAs that they have two-thirds majority.
“As a party, we have issued notices to each of the MLAs individually because we don’t know where their new party office is located. We have a strong ground for disqualification of the 12 MLAs,” Lyngdoh said.
According to her, no political party should allow this kind of exodus that discredits the political structure of the state.
“We would like to know the ground for this merger? A merger needs to be evaluated before being accepted. We see no parent body for them to merge with,” the CLP leader said.
Meanwhile, legal counsel of the Congress party and senior advocate, VGK Kynta said they have a good case and it would be a win-win situation for the Congress.
“We will not disclose our trump card now but we have a good case at hand. We centre our thoughts only on the two-thirds issue. But there are other parameters to consider their disqualification,” Kynta said.
Mawlai MLA, PT Sawkmie said the decision of the 12 MLAs to merge with AITC was not discussed with leaders of block and district units. “How can you call this a merger?” Sawkmie questioned. He also informed that they have requested the Speaker to convene a special session to discuss this so-called merger.
Congress MDC, PN Syiem said there is no question of two-thirds when the parent party has not merged.
“We are very confident that the Speaker will disqualify them under the Tenth Schedule,” he said.
Against the backdrop of the Congress petition to the Speaker, newly-elected president of All India Trinamool Congress- Meghalaya, Charles Pyngrope told The Shillong Times they had submitted a letter to the office of Assembly Speaker announcing their merger with the AITC.
“We confine ourselves to the rule laid down by the Constitution under the anti-defection law. If the Congress feels we have deviated from the rules then they are free to lodge a complaint,” he said.
He also asked the state Congress to divulge the reasons behind its demand for disqualification of the 12 MLAs.
