Congress MLA misses deadline to reply to anti-defection notice

DEHRADUN: Six days after speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal served separate show cause notices under anti-defection law to suspended BJP rebel MLA from Ghansali, in Tehri district, Bheem Lal Arya and Congress MLA from Someshwar, in Almora district, Rekha Arya, on May 26, for violating their chief whips by voting against their own parties during the floor test held on May 10, the Congress MLA declined to come to Kunjwal’s office saying she did not receive the notice.
While speaker Kunjwal was not in his office as he was in his constituency at Jageshwar, principal secretary (Vidhan Sabha) Jagdish Chandra told TOI that she had informed the speaker’s office that she was unwell and hospitalized in Bareilly and that she had not received the show cause notice issued to her. “As I have not obtained a copy of show cause notice issued on May 26, the question of replying to it with six days does not arise,” wrote Rekha Arya to in her letter to the speaker.
Chandra, however, made it clear that the show cause notices were promptly sent to both the MLAs and “it was difficult to believe that she may not have received it in time.” Congress MLA Rekha Arya had voted in favour of BJP in violation of the strict anti-defection law during floor test held on May 10, a day after Congress chief whip Indira Hridayesh had issued a whip asking all 27 Congress legislators to be present in the assembly during the floor test held on May 27.
Chandra said BJP’s suspended MLA Bheem Lal, however, reached the speaker’s house on Thursday to submit his reply to the notice served to him. In his reply, Arya refused to admit that he had violated the chief whip. “After I was suspended by the BJP for anti-party activities in September 2015, BJP legislature party had never objected to my supporting Congress legislature party in the House. So the question of violating chief whip under anti-defection law does not arise,” Arya wrote in his reply to the notice. Kunjwal will attend the office on Friday to scrutinize the reply of BJP MLA, before deciding on his fate.