PANAJI: Terming the merger of 10 out of the 15
Congress MLAs with BJP as valid, speaker Rajesh Patnekar said the 10 former Congress legislators, including deputy chief minister
Chandrakant Kavlekar, could not be disqualified.
“It is not in dispute that on July 10, 2019, the strength of Congress was reduced from 15 to five because 10 MLAs that constituted 2/3rd strength of the
party merged into BJP. My office received the intimation and seating arrangements in the House were accordingly changed,” Patnekar observed.
His order stated that a decision by a political party regarding a merger was not required to be proved as per paragraph 4(2) of the Xth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
GPCC president
Girish Chodankar’s case was that the 10 former Congress MLAs had voluntarily given up party membership, making them liable for
disqualification under the Xth Schedule. According to Chodankar, apart from 2/3rd of Congress MLAs deciding to merge with BJP, there was a requirement of a decision by the political party to the effect, too.
“Reading paragraph 4(2) of the Xth Schedule, the defence available to the former Congress MLAs is that there is a merger. It is undisputed that 10 out of 15 MLAs of Congress in the Goa state legislative assembly merged into BJP. This undisputedly means that 2/3rd of the total number of Congress MLAs merged with BJP. Therefore, it is clear that the test in paragraph 4(2) of Xth Schedule is satisfied,” the speaker observed.
He said Chodankar’s argument that there was no valid merger was in fact contrary to the statement in the disqualification petition which said that 10 out of 15 MLAs constituting 2/3rd of the MLAs of Congress joined BJP.
In response to the GPCC president’s argument that there was no decision by Congress to merge with BJP, the former Congress MLAs stated that on July 10, 2019, a meeting was convened by the state unit of
Indian National Congress under the leadership of its then general secretary and opposition leader Chandrakant Kavlekar to discuss issues relating to merger of the party with BJP. The meeting was attended by 10 out of the 15 MLAs of the
Congress Legislature Party and several members of Congress too.
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“It was unanimously resolved that the legislature party merged into BJP after details were discussed in the said meeting and a resolution to this effect was adopted,” the former Congress MLAs said.
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