Congress to file disqualification petitions against eight rebel MLAs

Team Herald 

PANJIM: The opposition Congress has decided to file disqualification petitions against eight rebel MLAs, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September this year.

Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Amit Patkar on Monday said that he has received documents sought through the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the office of the Speaker. 

“We have got documents which we wanted. Based on these documents we will now file disqualification petition against eight rebel MLAs,” he said.

Similarly, the Goa Legislature Department has provided documents to former GPCC president Girish Chodankar, who had also applied under the RTI Act.

Former Advocate General and Aldona MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira said, “From the wordings in the communications, it is evidence that there is no merger of the original political party, which is the Indian National Congress  (INC) and therefore the claim of merger to get the benefit of Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule of Constitution of India falls flat. It is a matter of time when these eight defectors will stand disqualified. 

The Congress leaders in separate applications had applied for documents related to the joining of the eight MALs into the BJP two weeks after their joining on September 14.  

They had asked for copies of the bulletin published on September 14, by the Legislative Assembly regarding the merger of the Indian National Congress (INC) Legislative party into BJP; copies of documents submitted by INC Legislative Party to effect the merger including various resolutions of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). 

However, there is no resolution by the Goa Pradesh Congress Party (GPCC) in the file, as per the information obtained under RTI Act.

Besides this, copies of the file noting of Legislative Assembly office and the office of the Speaker regarding the merger have bene provided to the applicants.