Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has issued notices to 20 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs, seeking their responses within seven days, in connection with disqualification petitions filed by the party.
The 20 MPs are accused by the TMC of abandoning the party and subsequently joining the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The TMC has maintained that the 20 MPs violated the anti-defection law by leaving the party and joining another political organisation. She said the Speaker’s office had acted after nearly two months and issued notices to the 20 MPs following the Supreme Court proceedings. Earlier reporting noted: Defection case: Lok Sabha Secretariat issues notices to 20 rebel TMC MPs On the same day that the Supreme Court agreed to hear Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s plea seeking an expeditious decision on disqualification petitions, and more than a month after he wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him to disqualify 20 MPs who switched from the TMC to the Nationalist Congress Party of India, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued notices to the legislators, asking them to submit their replies within seven days. She pointed out that the party had filed 20 disqualification petitions on June 19 and then shared an image of the notice issued to the rebel MPs.
The TMC MP said the disqualification petitions had been filed in June and questioned why it had taken two months for the Speaker’s office to act. She further said the action came after Abhishek Banerjee moved the Supreme Court over the delay. Earlier reporting noted: “Speaker LS did nothing except give them better seats at our expense. [Solicitor General] SG Tushar Mehta in Court said the Speaker had issued notices.
The party has sought their disqualification under the anti-defection provisions of the Constitution. Abhishek Banerjee has argued that their conduct attracts disqualification under the Tenth Schedule. Reacting to the Speaker’s decision, TMC MP Sagarika Ghose described the move as a significant breakthrough. Ghose accused the MPs of betraying the mandate on which they were elected and alleged that their move to join another party was in violation of the Constitution and the law. She also argued that the Tenth Schedule provides for disqualification in such circumstances and claimed that political parties, rather than individual MPs, can merge under its provisions. Notice dated Aug. 25th – exact date of hearing!” she wrote on X.
Earlier reporting noted: Reacting to the development, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra alleged on X that there had been a cover-up regarding the timing of the notices issued by the LS Secretariat.
