New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking the disqualification of Kanthi MP Sisir Adhikari. This is a follow-up to a petition the party had filed in this regard in May 2021.
Adhikari was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 on a TMC ticket but joined the BJP at a rally in the run-up to the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In his letter to Birla dated 8 August, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, leader of the Trinamool in the Lok Sabha, wrote: “I humbly request your good office to not allow Shri Adhikary (sic) to delay the proceedings, dispose the disqualification petition expeditiously and grant the prayers sought for in the petition.”
The letter has been accessed by ThePrint.
Bandyopadhyay also submitted a point-by-point rebuttal to the defence Adhikari had put up in his own submission to Birla.
“The Hon’ble Speaker has rightfully concluded that the petition is maintainable as it complies with the conditions of Rule 6 of the Disqualification Rules and has thus forwarded the petition to Shri Adhikary. In fact, it is utterly discourteous on the part of Shri Adhikary to insinuate that the Hon’ble Speaker has failed in his duties to consider the compliance of Rule 6 of the Disqualification Rules (sic),” Bandyopadhyay wrote.
Adhikari, in his response to a November 2021 letter by the Speaker seeking his side on the issue, had objected to the TMC petition, citing alleged technical deficiencies such as the absence of date and time for when the petition was signed.
Earlier this month, Bandyopadhyay wrote to Sisir Adhikari, asking him to explain why he took part in the vice-presidential election despite the TMC’s decision to abstain from the process.
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‘45% MLAs who switched sides joined BJP’
The TMC claims to have put together some data on defections to the BJP.
“Across the country, 405 MLAs switched parties between 2016-2020. Of them, 45 per cent have joined the BJP — that’s 182 people. Between the same period, in the Rajya Sabha, 10 of 16 [who switched parties] joined the BJP,” a TMC leader told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Party leaders also claim that the delay in Adhikari’s disqualification could be attributed to the BJP’s reluctance to contest byelections in West Bengal.
“This [central] government is destabilising state governments with impunity and makes tall claims. But the fact is that they know they will be thrashed in the bypolls. That is the real reason why they are not moving on the disqualification,” said Derek O’Brien, the leader of the TMC parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha.
But while the Trinamool Congress is determined to have Adhikari disqualified from the Lok Sabha on the grounds of defection, the party is yet to move against his son Dibyendu Adhikari.
Dibyendu, too, was elected to the Lower House in 2019 on a TMC ticket from Tamluk. However, unlike his brother Suvendu, he is yet to declare any change in his allegiance to the party led by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.
Sisir Adhikari’s other son, Suvendu, is now Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, representing the BJP.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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