The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced that it will move Calcutta High Court in an attempt to get Mukul Roy disqualified as an MLA in the West Bengal Assembly.
This comes after the first hearing over the disqualification of Mukul Roy as BJP MLA in the West Bengal Assembly before speaker Biman Banerjee concluded on Friday, 16 July. The next hearing is scheduled for 30 July.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said, “Speaker had called me as a petitioner against Mukul Roy to enforce the anti-defection law. We will move Calcutta High Court demanding for the implementation of the anti-defection law,” news agency ANI reported.
He added, “We will also demand that the hearing before West Bengal Assembly Speaker against Mukul Roy should be concluded at the earliest.”
Some Background:
Earlier, protesting against the Speaker's decision to nominate Roy as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), BJP MLAs in West Bengal resigned from all the eight standing committees of the Assembly on Tuesday, 13 July.
These MLAs include Mihir Goswami, Manoj Tigga, and Krishna Kalyani, among others.
Speaking to the media after submitting his resignation Tigga had said, "It is true that there is no rule, but it has been the custom that the Speaker allows the name proposed by the Opposition and make him the chairman of the PAC… They have stabbed us in the back."
TMC leader Tapas Roy said, "Whether they will resign or not is up to them and I have nothing to say about it. The BJP leaders need to learn Assembly proceedings first. The decision is entirely under the jurisdiction of the Speaker. So, if he decides to make Roy the chairman, we have nothing to do with it."
"Moreover, BJP shouldn't speak of backstabbing. They are horse trading all over the country. They don't have the moral right to say so."TMC leader Tapas Roy
Roy had recently switched over to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after winning the state elections on a BJP ticket. Last Friday he was appointed as the chairperson of the PAC in the West Bengal Assembly by Speaker Biman Banerjee.
On 11 June, a month after TMC won a resounding victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, Roy and his son Subhranshu Roy had joined the TMC in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Reacting to Adhikari's statement that BJP will approach Calcutta High Court to enforce the anti-defection law, Roy said, “Why only court? He can go wherever he wishes to go,” ANI reported.
(With inputs from ANI)
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