Loyalty affidavit by Cong MLAs in WB draws derision

An unusual practice by the Congress to secure a signed affidavit from 44 new party MLAs in West Bengal pledging loyalty to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi today drew derision from BJP and TMC which dubbed it as "bonded labour".
The Congress, however, maintained that it was a "voluntary" exercise by the legislators.
Trinamool Congress(TMC) poked fun at the Congress, saying it was attempting to check cross over of its MLAs to the ruling party by asking them sign court papers, saying this showed that the party does not have faith in their own elected legislators.
The need for a signed pledge that they would not leave the party was proposed by Adhir Chowdhury, the chief of the West Bengal unit of the Congress, at a meeting with the new legislators yesterday ostensibly to keep its flock together and all those present were reported to have agreed.

"I do swear my unqualified allegiance to Indian National Congress led by Honorable Congress President Sonia Gandhi ji and Honourable Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi ji", the MLAs said in an affidavit to the Congress President. The undertaking, made on a Rs 100-stamp paper, also seeks to ensure that the MLAs will not get involved in "anti-party activity".
BJP national general secretary Anil Jain took a dig at Congress over the "signing" of a declaration on a stamp paper by the MLAs pledging that they would not leave the party, saying such practice of "bonded labour" can only happen in that party.

"All those who have been loyal (to the family)...This kind of practice of bonded labour can happen there (Congress). Only in Congress can a person be bound to power and family," Jain told reporters in Delhi.

Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said no instructions for proving the loyalty have been issued by the AICC or the General Secretary In-charge.
"This is a voluntary exercise and nothing more should be read into it", he told reporters in Delhi.
In reply to a volley of questions, he, however, said that during the last Assembly, 10 Congress legislators in the state were "poached" in violation of the Anti-Defection law.

He suggested that if legislators by their own volition were doing it, it is a matter which will be looked after by the state leaders.