By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The NCP may move the State Assembly Speaker Charles Pyngrope demanding disqualification of the 12 party legislators who joined National People’s Party (NPP) on Friday.
With the exception of one MLA, the Meghalaya unit of the NCP on Friday merged with the ‘tribal-centric’ NPP.
Former MP Robert Kharshiing, who is the central observer of NCP for northeastern states, said over phone from New Delhi that he would try to persuade the 12 legislators to come back to the party fold.
“If they do not return, we will have no other option but to move the Speaker challenging the merger,” he said, adding “since the NCP is a national party and if at all there is merger or split it has to take place at national level”.
Soon after the merger, NCP’s national president Sharad Pawar dissolved his party’s Meghalaya unit and constituted an ad-hoc state committee with Deputy Speaker Sanbor Shullai as convenor.
According to Kharshiing, the merger of a party or legislators at the state-level with another party goes against the spirit of the anti-defection law.
Appreciating PA Sangma’s decision to quit Tura assembly seat before forming the new party, Kharshiing said 12 NCP MLAs should have done the same before joining the new party.
“The decision of the legislators to merge with another party without resigning from Assembly can be considered as betrayal of voters,” he said.
The NPP camp, meanwhile, is banking on para 4 of the anti-defection law which says that two third of the legislators from a state legislature can merge with another party which will not attract any disqualification of MLAs.
Moreover, there is precedence in Meghalaya when the lone BJP legislator AL Hek joined the Congress in 2009 which was accepted by the Speaker.
Terming it as a ‘wrong decision’ on the part of the Speaker, Kharshiing said, “No body has challenged it either in the High Court or Supreme Court so far, hence the precedence is created”.
