Shillong, Aug 28:The Congress on Thursday moved Assembly Speaker Thomas Sangma to disqualify four defected Congress MLAs-Ronnie Lyngdoh, Celestine Lyngdoh, Gabriel Wahlang and Charles Marngar.
The petition was submitted to Assembly Commissioner and Secretary Andrew Simons on August 28, as the Speaker is out of the station.
Congress secretary Manuel Badwar filed the petition on behalf of the party against the legislators who joined the NPP.
The petition was filed after the previous petitioner, Ronnie, left the party and joined the NPP on July 30.
The other three Congress MLAs had joined the NPP on August 19, 2024.
Ronnie had filed the disqualification petition before the Speaker on September 9,.2024 against Gabriel Wahlang and Charles Marngar, the MLA Nongstoin and Mawhati respectively and thereafter, on September 16, 2024 another petition was filed against Celestine Lyngdoh, the MLA of Umsning constituency under Sub Rule (5) and (6) of Rule 6 of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1998 (‘Rules’) read with provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Thereafter, the Speaker on February 25 this year had dismissed the three disqualification petitions filed by the then petitioner against Gabriel, Charles and Celestine.
The petitioner then approached the High Court of Meghalaya against the order of the Speaker by the Writ Petition (Civil) No. 134 of 2025.
Pending the disqualification petition case, the then petitioner, Ronnie, followed the path of the other three MLAs by aligning himself with the NPP.
Following this, the petition before the High Court of Meghalaya and the entire case became infructuous.
The case was disposed of as withdrawn by the court on August 13 this year.
The party on Thursday pursued the disqualification petition against the three deserted MLAs and the petitioner Ronnie with the Speaker, through the Secretary Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), Manuel Badwar. The party has filed a case against Ronnie as he has fallen into the same line with the other 3 MLAs, as he has left the party without following the procedure of law.
This present disqualification petition is filed with a prayer to disqualify these 4 deserted MLAs since they did not follow due process of law in contravention of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
