Summary:
Shillong, Nov 29 (PTI) Senior Congress leaders in Meghalaya met Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh on Monday and sought disqualification of 12 of its MLAs, who recently switched over to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, a member of the grand old party said.
Led by state unit chief and Lok Sabha MP Vincent H Pala, Congress legislature party leader Ampareen Lyngdoh and two other legislators submitted to the speaker petitions for disqualification of each of 12 MLAs, including former chief minister Mukul Sangma, under the anti-defection law.
"It is humbly prayed that your honour be pleased to take such procedural measures as mandated under Rule 7 of the Members of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on ground of Defection) rules, 1988," Ampareen said in the 12 petitions.
Sangma and 11 other Congress MLAs had on November 25 officially informed the speaker of their decision to cross over to the TMC.
The desertion by more than two-thirds of the Congress legislative party makes TMC, a newbie in Meghalaya, the principal opposition in the northeastern state.
The Congress had bagged 21 seats in the 60-member Assembly after the 2018 polls.