MP Assembly to inform EC about MLAs termination

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Assembly secretariat will inform the Election Commission about termination of membership of two Congress legislators in order to pave way for holding by-election in the two assembly constituencies that has now fallen vacant. Meanwhile, Congress MLAs are mulling over resigning en-masse from the assembly.
"Both the assembly seats, represented by Congress legislators Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi and Kalpana Parulekar have fallen vacant.We are going to inform the EC about termination of their membership shortly," a top official of the assembly secretariat told TOI.
Chaturvedi, deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party, represents Bhind seat in the assembly while Parulekar represents the Mahidpur assembly segment in Ujjain district.
Experts in legislative affairs said both the MLAs could move the High Court to challenge their termination of membership from assembly.
"There is no way out for these MLAs. They can now only challenge the decision of the House in High Court," Speaker Ishwardas Rohani told TOI.
In the past, the state assembly had cancelled the membership of three MLAs on various occasions. Two Jan Sangh MLAs P R Krull and VR Megawala were stripped off their membership for throwing footwear at the then deputy speaker N P Shrivastava in 1966. Congress MLA Suresh Seth too followed their suit for taking an elephant inside the assembly premises and showing 'disrespect' to the then speaker S R Navlakar in 1977.
Meanwhile, Congress legislative party (CLP) is contemplating asking its legislators to resign en-masse, protesting against the annulling of membership of its two MLAs, party insiders said.