SHILLONG, Nov 29: Assembly Speaker, Metbah Lyngdoh on Monday said the merger of 12 former Congress MLAs with AITC and the petition filed by Congress seeking their disqualification was under examination and he would need to give his ruling.
Asked about his opinion on the merger, he said that the first and foremost factor in a merger is majority and as it stands, the AITC has 12 out of 17 MLAs.
Talking to media persons here, Lyngdoh said he has received a bunch of papers from Congress leaders and MLAs on Monday and he is yet to go through the same.
The Congress maintains that the defection of 12 MLAs attracts disqualification under the Tenth Schedule whereas the former Congress members are confident that their merger with AITC will not attract provisions of the anti-defection law since two-thirds of the MLAs had quit the party.