Assam Congress Wants 2 MLAs Disqualified For Supporting BJP govt

The Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, on Friday submitted two petitions to the Speaker, requesting him to disqualify Congress MLAs Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha and Basanta Das, who recently announced their "support to the government" without leaving the party.

Leading a delegation of the Congress, Mr Saikia submitted the petitions to Speaker Biswajit Daimary and urged him to disqualify the two members immediately from membership of the Assam Assembly for voluntarily giving up the party's membership.

Mr Saikia said both the MLAs were suspended after they did not respond to show-cause notices following the announcement of their allegiance to the BJP-led government.

On February 14, Mr Purkayastha and Mr Das had said that they decided to "support the government" for its developmental works.

Mr Purkayastha was the working president of the opposition party and Mr Das was a minister in the Tarun Gogoi government.

Mr Purkayastha, who has been in the Congress for several decades since his National Students' Union of India days, was elected from the Karimganj North constituency in Karimganj district in 2021. Mr Das had won the Assembly polls from the Mangaldoi seat.

Officially, the BJP's strength in the 126-member Assam Assembly is 61, while its allies Asom Gana Parishad and United People's Party Liberal have nine and seven, respectively. 

In the opposition camp, the Congress' strength is 27, AIUDF has 15 members, Bodoland People's Front has three and CPM has one MLA. There is one Independent legislator as well. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)