From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Even while counting of votes on Thursday rings down curtains on the outgoing Goa Assembly, state Congress President Girish Chodankar has moved the supreme court for disqualification of 12 MLAs for alleged defection from Congress and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
He has come against the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court dismissing the disqualification plea on February 24, upholding the decision of the Goa Speaker in this regard.
The petition says the Speaker had wrongly held the “deemed merger” of Congress with the BJP, thus giving protection to the defected. It says the High Court gave an erroneous interpretation to merger under the anti-defection law, “completely disrobing the original political party of any role with respect to its merger and resultantly leaving the original political party at the mercy of the legislature party.”
The questions of law framed for the top court’s decision are:
1. Whether the merger of the original political party is a necessary pre-condition for the members of a legislature party to claim merger of their legislature party?
2. More importantly, whether the protection granted under Para 4(1) of Schedule X can be granted to members of the legislature party in the absence of the merger of the original political party?
In the 2017 polls to the 40-member Goa Assembly, the Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats, while the BJP had bagged 13 seats. The BJP then quickly forged an alliance with some regional outfits and independents to form the government in the State. Over the next five years, a number of Congress MLAs quit the party, reducing its strength in the House to two.
