Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari today attended the hearing of a petition seeking Mukul Roy’s disqualification as an MLA at Speaker Biman Banerjee’s chamber but said that BJP would move the court for quick resolution of the issue.
“Hardly any effort was made to make anti-defection law effective in the state. Cross-voting did occur in the Rajya Sabha polls also. We have no faith in this system. We will move the court for a fast resolution of the issue taking legal advice of our legal cell.
We want Roy to get disqualified as soon as possible. We will also mention in the petition to fix the deadline for fast redressal of the issue,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari said that 30 July has been fixed as the next date of hearing. Asked about the development during Friday’s hearing, he said, “The BJP will not go into technicalities…”
Assembly sources said the Speaker sought certain clarifications from Adhikari during the hearing. TMC legislators today attended the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of which Mukul Roy is the chairman while BJP MLAs boycotted it.
TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said the Speaker has just taken cognizance of the complaint against Roy. “There is no question of any acknowledgement of the BJP’s stand by the Speaker. The hearing has only begun,” he said. The Speaker today announced a fresh list of various standing committees chairpersons since the BJP MLAs had resigned decrying Roy’s appointment as PAC chairman.
Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra has become chairman of the Standing Committee for labour, Sudipto Roy, Humayun Kabir, Rukbanur Rehaman, Abdul Khalek Mollah are new members of various standing committees. State Parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said that Standing committees would meet on 26 July.
Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla issued a show-cause notice to two Trinamul MPs Sisir Adhikari and Sunil Mondal who defected to BJP. Roy further hailed the move of the Lok Sabha secretariat to send notices to turncoat Sisir and Mondal.
“Our party has sought the disqualification of Adhikari and Mondal as MPs to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. We are happy that the process to hear their cases has started. Let’s hope for a positive outcome,” the TMC deputy leader in the Upper House said.