By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 8: All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) parliamentary party leader, Mukul Sangma on Wednesday termed the petition filed by the Congress against ten of the twelve All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MLAs, as nothing but an attempt to have a concocted story with complete misrepresentation and distortion of facts to only create a hurdle in the smooth functioning of the members of the Assembly.
He described as “wrong, false and misrepresentation of facts” the petitioner’s claim that there were not adequate numbers to qualify for merger.
“Twelve of the 17 MLAs constitute more than two-thirds of the effective strength of the then CLP,” Sangma said.
The ten AITC MLAs, led by Sangma, submitted their reply to the notice issued by Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh after a petition was filed by the Congress seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Soon after the 12 Congress MLAs had merged with the AITC, Congress Legislature Party leader, Ampareen Lyngdoh filed the petition seeking the disqualification of 10 of them, barring Charles Pyngrope and Shitlang Pale. “The respondents have submitted the reply in consistent with the provision of the law and the Constitution of India,” Sangma told reporters.
“Para 4 (1) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution provides for the merger of the original political party with any political party and Para 4 (2) clearly says that if not less than two-thirds of the effective strength of a legislature party in the House decides to merge with any other political party, then it would have fulfilled the requirement,” the AITC leader said.
He said the members were asked to be present physically and testify and verify the decision as well as the signature put on the letter and submitted to the Speaker, which was accordingly fulfilled. Continuing his attack on the Congress, Sangma said, “The petitioner chose to say the number was only 10, not 12. It was nothing but an attempt to play to the gallery and create a wrong perception.”
The AITC leader viewed the petition as a “mockery” and “abuse” of the space available for any aggrieved party to ask for any correction in the event of wrongdoing.
On the two MLAs from the 12 being left out, he said, “They are trying to somehow use some other tactics to prevail upon the rest of our members, thinking that they might actually be able to mislead, misguide and trap them but we are not so novice.”
“We are lawmakers and we know how to read and interpret the provisions of law,” he added.