PANJIM: Almost one and half months after the two former MGP MLAs joined the BJP, in a merger of MGP Legislative wing, former PWD Minister and MGP MLA Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar has filed a disqualification petition against Dy CM Manohar (Babu) Azgaonkar and Minister Dipak Pauskar.
In a petition before the Speaker of the Assembly, Dhavalikar said, “The BJP engineered defection of two MLAs of the MGP and claimed a merger of the MGP Legislative Party into the BJP, in what is respectfully submitted as a “bedroom merger” which apart from being illegal, is unconstitutional and has exposed the respondents.”
Dhavalikar said that the two MLAs had addressed communication to the Speaker claiming “merger of MGP Legislative Party into BJP”.
However, he states, the MGP is a recognised political party with the Election Commission of India for about 56 years and continues to be registered as such, even as of date.
“The MGP even contested the by-elections for Shiroda Assembly Constituency, having nominated its candidate against which nomination, an objection was filed at the time of scrutiny, on behalf of the candidate of the BJP, interalia claiming that the nomination form of the candidate of the MGP could not be accepted on the ground that due to the so-called merger, the Returning Officer, by his order dated April 5, 2019, overruled this objection, thus holding the nomination of the candidate of the MGP, to be valid,” he said adding, “This has further re-affirmed that there has been no merger of the MGP.”
Dhavalikar said that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India does not recognise merger of the Legislative Wing/Legislative Party/Legislature Party into another political party.
The petitioner also points out that the respondents have not claimed that there is any merger of the “original political party” but the sole claim is that “the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Legislative Party has decided to merge in the Bhartiya Janata Party.”
“Such type of claim is not contemplated in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India and runs contrary to the mandate of Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India,” he said.
Dhavalikar stated that MGP has not passed any resolution to merge with BJP. “There was no meeting of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party convened to take any such decision and no such decision to merge the MGP into the BJP was contemplated or even taken. Resultantly, respondents having made such claim of a merger and having claimed to have become members of the BJP, have voluntarily given up membership of their original political party and thus incurred disqualification on grounds of defection and not liable to continue as members of the House,” he added.
Dhavalikar stated that the respondents have no right to continue as legislators or members of the House and are required to be disqualified as they have incurred disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India
He prayed, “The respondents be disqualified on grounds of defection in terms of Article (9) (2) read with the para 2 of Tenth Schedule of Constitution of India.”
