Agartala, Jan 13 (PTI) Tripura Speaker Ramendra ChandraDebnath has disqualified under the anti-defection law MLARatan Lal Nath who recently crossed over to the BJP from theCongress.
Nath, who was elected to the Assembly on a Congressticket from Mohanpur constituency had joined the BJP onDecember 22 last year ahead of the state Assembly electionswhich are due in the first half of this year.
The Speaker told reporters here today that hedisqualified Nath from the Assembly under the anti-defectionlaw on the basis of a complaint lodged by Tripura PradeshCongress Committee (TPCC) president Birajit Sinha.
The Speaker served notices to Sinha and Nath on January 1after the TPCC chief's complaint and told them to be presentin his chamber on January 8 to hear the complaint.
Nath then wrote a letter to the Speaker saying he was illand wouldn't be able to attend the hearing. He also said thathe was expelled from the Congress by the TPCC president andhence the anti-defection law would not be applicable on him.
"I had received a complaint from TPCC president forcancellation of membership of Nath and accordingly called Nathand Sinha to be present on January 8. Nath wanted time and Itold him to appear before me yesterday (January 12) but he didnot. Then I decided to expel him under the anti-defectionAct," the Speaker said.
The term of the present 60-member Tripura House expireson March 14.
The Congress had 10 MLAs in the House after the 2013Assembly election. Six of the Congress MLAs joined theTrinamool Congress and then switched over to the BJP.
Initially, the BJP had no MLAs in the House but thesaffron party's strength rose to six after the switch-over.
With Nath's joining the party, the strength increased toseven. However, Nath has now been disqualified.
The Congress is now left with two MLAs in the Assemblyafter one Congress MLA recently quite the party on his own.
PTI JOY RGCHT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.