SHILLONG, Dec 19: Assembly Speaker, Metbah Lyngdoh on Sunday said he will take a call on the disqualification petitions filed against 12 former Congress MLAs after he receives replies from all of them.
“I will have to see if the two MLAs – Charles Pyngrope and Shitlang Pale – have replied to the notice,” Lyngdoh said.
He said he had not attended office on Friday and Saturday and as such, he was not very sure if the duo submitted their replies. They will have to send their replies within seven days from the day of receiving the notice that was issued by the Speaker’s office.
“I will sit and examine (the disqualification petitions) only after I get the replies from all the 12 MLAs,” Lyngdoh added.
The ten other MLAs have already sent their replies. After deserting the Congress, the 12 MLAs had “merged” themselves with the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
The Congress had filed two disqualification petitions. The first was against ten MLAs, including former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma. The second was filed against Pyngrope and Pale.
The Congress claimed there are clear lapses in the switchover process, which is not in accordance with the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law).
State Congress president and Shillong MP, Vincent H Pala had said, “Merger is from party to party. These 12 MLAs got the numbers to split the party and there is no denying the fact but after coming out of the Congress, they should have formed a party and then, merged it with other party.”
Sangma had led a “political coup” on November 25 which relegated the Congress to a smaller party and made the AITC the state’s principal opposition party overnight.
