Assam Assembly Speaker disqualifies 9 rebel Congress MLAs

Assam Assembly Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi on Monday disqualified nine rebel Congress MLAs from the House membership with immediate effect for joining the opposition BJP.

“The Speaker issued the orders this evening. As per the rules, he disqualified the nine Congress MLAs with immediate effect for joining a different political party while getting elected from another party,” Assam Assembly Principal Secretary Pranab Kumar Das told a news agency here.

The nine MLAs are: Jayanta Mallah Baruah, Pijush Hazarika, Pallab Lochan Das, Pradan Barua, Abu Taher Bepari, Kripanath Mallah, Rajen Borthakur, Binanda Kumar Saikia and Bolin Chetia.

The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee had already expelled these MLAs from the primary memberships in November, this year.

The principal secretary said that Congress chief whip Nilamani Sen Deka had filed a complaint with the Speaker on December one for disqualification of the members.

Accordingly, the Speaker issued notices to all the nine leaders giving them one week’s time to reply, he added.

“However, they sought more time on December 8 and the Speaker gave another week’s time till December 14. He called a hearing on December 19, when all the concerned people from both sides came. The Speaker heard the arguments of both the sides,” Das said. During the winter session of the Assembly earlier this month, seven of the nine MLAs had been suspended for the duration of the session long with five BJP members for disobeying the Speaker’s ruling inside the House.