Cong delegation meets Speaker, asks him to disqualify BJP MLA

A delegation of Congress MLAs Wednesday met Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi in Gandhinagar and appealed to him to disqualify BJP legislator Pabubha Manek whose election has been invalidated by the Gujarat High Court for submitting a "defective" nomination form.

Despite the April 12 HC order invalidating Manek's election from the Dwarka Assembly constituency in 2017, he has not been disqualified yet, Congress leaders told reporters after the meeting and accused Trivedi of acting in a "partisan" manner.

The delegation, which had around 15 MLAs, also urged the Speaker to take action against OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who had won the 2017 Assembly election on a Congress ticket and last month announced quitting the opposition party.

While quitting the Congress, the MLA from Radhanpur in Patan district had not resigned from the Assembly.

Prominent members of the delegation were Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani and chief whip Ashwin Kotwal.

The party had on April 25 made a representation before the Speaker, seeking his disqualification from the assembly after he resigned from all party posts.

Congress leaders alleged the Speaker was acting in a "partisan" manner as he was quick to disqualify Congress MLA Bhagvan Barad and independent MLA Bhupendrasinh Khant, but was dragging his feet when it came to taking similar action against a BJP legislator.

Barad, the MLA from Talala constituency, was disqualified after he was convicted in an illegal mining case in February.

The HC had rejected his plea against his disqualification, which was stayed by the Supreme Court on appeal.

Khant, the independent MLA from Morva Hadaf in Panchmahal district, was disqualified on May 3, weeks after the High Court invalidated his caste certificate. The HC had said Khant, who was elected from the tribal-reserved seat, did not belong to an ST community.

"The post of Assembly Speaker is above party politics. He is expected to work in a non-partisan manner. We met and requested the Speaker to take action against Pabubha Manek after the Gujarat High Court rejected his election from Dwarka for submitting a defective nomination form.

"Even the Supreme Court has not given any stay on the HC order. In such a situation, he should be disqualified as a legislator...we appealed this to the Speaker," said Chavda.

"The Speaker verbally told us that Maneks salary as an MLA has been blocked and he is not allowed to attend any meeting as an MLA. When we sought a copy of the order, he refused," Chavda said.

He said the Speaker was adopting "double standard" when it came to taking action against MLAs from the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.

"Barad was disqualified even when the Supreme Court had stayed his conviction. Even in case of Khant, his appeal for a stay of the HC order is pending in the Supreme Court.

"But decisions regarding their disqualification were taken overnight and they were removed," he said.

Chavda said the Congress delegation also raised the issue of action against Thakor.

"Thakor worked against Congress candidates during the Lok Sabha polls by campaigning against them. Till today, no action has been taken against him.

"We requested the Speaker to take action against him as per the law, the Gujarat Congress chief said.