Kolkata: Division bench of Calcutta High Court on Thursday has disqualified senior political leader Mukul Roy from the West Bengal Assembly stating that he had violated the anti-defection law.
The division bench of Debangshu Basak Md Shabbar Rashidi observed that Roy’s switch from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after winning the 2021 Krishnanagar North Assembly seat on a BJP ticket must fall under the anti-defection law.
Notably, Assembly Speaker Biman Bandhopadhyay had earlier refused to cancel Roy’s name from the post of chairman of PAC committee and even refused to disqualify his legislator post. The Court had also set aside the Speaker’s earlier order.
Speaker Biman Bandhopadhyay mentioned that he will comment after reading the court’s verdict.
TMC Leader Kunal Ghosh said, “Mukul Roy himself was very confused. He was finding it difficult to decide which party he belongs to.”
Incidentally after quitting from TMC, in November 2017 Roy had joined BJP and in 2021 June Roy joined back the ruling TMC.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari Welcoming the verdict said that it is the victory of the Constitution.
“This is the victory of the Constitution. TMC had made several legislators defect to the ruling party by threatening or by luring them. The CPIM earlier could not give a tough fight but BJP could. This petition was filed by me and BJP MLA Ambika Roy. After Roy, it is likely that now other defected BJP MLAs will also face the same fate,” said Adhikari.
The CPI (M) and Congress had also welcomed the verdict.
