the goan I network
PANAJI
Former Deputy Chief Minister and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) strongman Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar on Friday filed a plea under the Xth Schedule of the Constitution against Deputy Chief Minister Babu Ajgaonkar and PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar seeking their disqualification as MLAs.
In his bulky petition against his two former party colleagues filed before the Speaker’s office, Dhavalikar has claimed that the post-midnight ‘merger’ of April 27 claimed by Ajgaonkar and Pauskar does not qualify as a merger envisaged in the X Schedule since it is of the “legislative wing” and not the Original Party.
Dhavalikar said in the petition that the BJP engineered defection of the two MLAs and claimed a merger of the MGP legislative party into the BJP. He termed it “bedroom merger” which is illegal and unconstitutional.
Dhavalikar also relied on the recent act of the Returning Officer at the Shiroda bypoll
held on April 23, by which the objection to the nomination form of the MGP candidate Deepak Dhavalikar, citing the so called merger of MGP with the BJP was overruled, and the candidature accepted at the time of scrutiny.
Quoting relevant sections of the Xth Schedule, Dhavalikar’s petition also claims that merger of the party would necessitate a decision by the original political party by appropriate notices, general body meeting, a resolution and only then para 4 will come to the rescue of any claim of merger to avoid disqualification under para 2 of the Schedule.
“There was no such general body or resolution taken,” Dhavalikar said in the petition, adding that as per the MGP’s constitution, such a general body would have required notices to be published in at least two newspapers which didn’t happen.
In the wee hours of March 27 post midnight, Ajgaonkar and Pauskar, had dramatically petitioned the Speaker’s office with a request that 2/3rds of the MGP legislative wing wanted to merge with the BJP.
Acting Speaker Michael Lobo then approved the merger which subsequently reduced Dhavalikar to a single MLA of the MGP from three. He was then dropped from the state cabinet by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant hours later and Ajgaonkar elevated to Deputy Chief Minister while Pauskar was sworn in to fill the vacancy.
