Meghalaya, Dec 23: Meghalaya speaker Metbah Lyngdoh on Thursday approved the disqualification petition by Congress against 12 rebel party MLAs who had recently switched over to the Trinamool Congress and gave recognition to the merger. Trinamool Congress has become the main opposition party in Meghalaya.
Lyngdoh had issued notices to the 12 MLAs after Congress filed a petition seeking their disqualification from the assembly under rules of the tenth schedule of the Constitution.
Asserting that their merger with Trinamool Congress was constitutional, 10 turncoat MLAs from Congress had filed individual replies to Lyngdoh, urging him not to disqualify them.
Congress has now been left with just five MLAs in the state.
On November 25, Former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma along with 11 other Congress MLAs joined TMC, making it the principal opposition party in the 60-member House.
Also Read: Meghalaya: Speaker issues notice to TMC’s Mukul Sangma, 9 others
Sangma had said that Congress had failed to work as an effective opposition party in the Meghalaya. Vincent Pala being made Congress chief is said to be the tipping point for Mukul Sangma and his rebel colleagues to switch sides.
“This is a culmination of our long analysis and due diligence as to how best we can serve our people and the nation… In 2018, we became the single-largest party, but for reasons known to all of us we could not form the government,” Sangma had said.
The Meghalaya TMC was formally launched in 2012 with an intention to contest 35 of the state’s 60 seats.
