PUDUCHERRY: The Congress party has moved a petition in the Puducherry Assembly seeking the disqualification of its rebel legislator N Dhanavelou under the anti-defection law here to the Assembly speaker. The government alleges that the disgruntled MLA "conspired to topple the Congress government in Puducherry by joining hands with the opposition parties".
The petition was submitted to Assembly Speaker VP Sivakozhunthu by Government whip RKR Anantharaman on Thursday afternoon. The petition was moved after the Bahour MLA, Dhanavelou, challenged his party to disqualify as an MLA in an anti-government rally organised on Wednesday.
Dhanavelou had levelled corruption charges against Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his cabinet colleagues in a memorandum submitted to Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Wednesday. Opposition leaders accompanied him when he went to Raj Nivas on Wednesday. Saying that the disgruntled MLA has violated the party lines, Dhanavelou had continuously been involved in anti-party activities, said Ananatharaman.
He also said that newspaper clippings, where he had given an advertisement urging people to participate in his anti-government rally, and audio clips of his speech in the rally has been submitted to the Speaker.
Meanwhile, Sivakozhunthu said that he would initiate action as per the provisions of law and a show cause notice would be served to Dhanavelou and ask him to reply in a certain time frame. The Pradesh Congress Committee had earlier suspended him and now moving to dismiss him from the party.