Suvendu Adhikari seeks exclusion of Mukul Roy as Krishnanagar MLA

Kolkata: Suvendu Adhikari, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, has sent a petition to the Speaker seeking disqualification of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mukul Roy as the MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar constituency, news agency ANI reported on Friday. Adhikari had earlier demanded Roy's resignation under the anti-defection law, pointing out that the latter switched camps to the TMC despite winning the assembly polls from the Krishnanagar Uttar assembly constituency on a BJP ticket. In his petition to the Speaker today, Adhikari has raised the same demand and called for the disqualification of Roy's MLA post.

The Bengal BJP camp had been preparing since Thursday to send the petition seeking Mukul Roy's disqualification as the Krishnanagar Uttar MLA and had consulted its lawyers for the purpose. Manoj Tigga, BJP's chief whip in the assembly, submitted the petition to Biman Banerjee on Friday.

Former BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy had contested the assembly election from Krishnanagar Uttar constituency and defeated TMC candidate actor Koushani Mukherjee. However, following weeks of speculation, Mukul Roy and his son Subhranshu rejoined the TMC in Kolkata last Friday in the presence of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a month after the party's landslide victory in the state assembly elections. Suvendu Adhikari had criticised the move and said that it calls for action under the anti-defection law.

However, Trinamool Congress (TMC) senior leader Kunal Ghosh on Sunday hit back at BJP's Suvendu Adhikari for his 'anti-defection law' comment and asked him to teach the law to his father Sisir Adhikari as he was a TMC MP, who joined the BJP before the elections while he was still holding the post.