West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay on Friday rejected Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikar’s plea for disqualification of Mukul Roy as an MLA, saying he was still with the BJP and, hence, cannot be dismissed as a member of the House. During a long hearing on the issue on Friday, Roy and his lawyers repeatedly claimed that he was still a BJP MLA from Krishnanagar North constituency.
Ruling in Roy’s favour, the Speaker said, “There was not enough evidence to support the dismissal of Mukul Roy as MLA under the anti-defection law. With that in mind, the application was rejected. Mukul Roy is currently with the BJP. His legislature is not being dismissed.”
After the BJP suffered a heavy defeat in the Assembly elections in May last year, Roy left the saffron party in June and returned to the ruling Trinamool Congress. A case was also filed in the Supreme Court against the appointment of Roy as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Taking up the case, the division bench of the apex court said it hoped the Assembly would decide on whether Roy should tender his resignation as an MLA by the second week of February, this year.
Assembly sources had earlier said that a case would be filed on Friday in compliance with the apex court order.
Reacting to the development, Adhikari said the BJP was counting more on the Supreme Court’s verdict than the Speaker’s ruling.