SHILLONG, Dec 16: Former chief minister, Mukul M. Sangma has reiterated that the remaining five Congress MLAs want to join the AITC.
Sangma and 11 other legislators had switched over to the AITC in November, reducing the strength of the Congress in the 60-member Assembly to five from 17.
The two parties are locked in a battle over the issue of the disqualification of the 12 who joined the AITC.
“I know many of them want to join,” he said on Thursday, urging the Congress MLAs to “come, join us instead of being where you are”.
Sangma, now the state AITC’s parliamentary party leader, countered the statement of the Congress that the 12 MLAs would be disqualified because of procedural lapses such as merging with another political party without first forming one of their own.
He also cited relevant paras of the amendment (2004) to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution to justify the merger of his team of MLAs with the AITC.
“Post-amendment, MLAs can be disqualified in the event of voluntarily giving up the membership of the political party they were elected from or if they defy the whip or directive of the party during voting in the House on an issue,” Sangma explained.
He said the argument of the petitioner reflected her ignorance or failure in properly interpreting the provisions of the Constitution.
“The provisions say there have to be at least two-thirds of the members of a legislature party for merging with another party. Calculating two-third of 17 is simple mathematics,” he added.
