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Uttarakhand Cong writes to Speaker to disqualify MLA who defected to BJP
“We have urged the Speaker to end Rajkumar’s assembly membership because he joined the BJP without resigning from his membership of both the Congress and the assembly...this disqualifies him from the latter as per the anti-defection law in Constitution,” said Godiyal about his letter
Uttarakhand Congress president Ganesh Godiyal has written to the assembly Speaker demanding disqualification of MLA from Purola constituency, Rajkumar, who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about a week ago.
In his letter to Speaker Premchand Aggarwal on Tuesday, Godiyal cited the anti-defection law for his demand.
“We have urged the Speaker to end Rajkumar’s assembly membership because he joined the BJP without resigning from his membership of both the Congress and the assembly...this disqualifies him from the latter as per the anti-defection law in Constitution,” said Godiyal about his letter.
The ruling BJP however, said they will “accept whatever decision is taken by the Speaker.” Party state general secretary Kuldeep Kumar said, “BJP has no involvement in the matter and can’t say anything because it is a constitutional matter on which the Speaker has to take the decision.”
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While legal experts seem to agree with the Congress, they have questioned the delay in reaching out to the Speaker.
Senior advocate of Uttarakhand high court Kartikeya Gupta said, “As per the anti-defection law, MLA Rajkumar gets disqualified from his membership of state assembly...However, it depends on the Speaker.”
Political analyst Jai Singh Rawat questioned the “delay” in lodging a complaint against the defection by Congress leadership. “Rajkumar switched sides on September 12 and Godiyal wrote to the Speaker on September 21. It should have been done the same day or the next day. Why was there so much delay? Also, it should have been done by the leader of Opposition but this doesn’t show there is no coordination between him and the party state president,” said Rawat.
Rajkumar joined the ruling BJP in its party headquarters in Delhi on September 12 in the presence of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, party state president Madan Kaushik and party Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni.
Rajkumar, who was a BJP MLA from 2007-2012 from Sahaspur constituency of Dehradun, fought independently from Purola in 2012 and lost. He then joined Congress for 2017 elections and won from Purola. Despite several attempts, he couldn’t be contacted.
Interestingly Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convener during his Kumaon visit on Sunday also said his party welcomed all the good people in the BJP and the Congress.
The anti-defection law was added to the Constitution as the tenth schedule by the 52nd amendment during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as the Prime Minister in 1985 according to which a member can be disqualified in two circumstances -- if they “voluntarily give up membership of a party” of they are disqualified for voting (or abstaining from voting) contrary to the directive issued by the party.
