Tripura Assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty on Wednesday disqualified Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ashish Das, who joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on October 31, 2021, after criticising the saffron party and its leadership in the state.
The Speaker said that after examining all the relevant papers and documents as well as the petition of BJP Chief Whip, Kalyani Roy he had disqualified Das under the anti-defection law (the 10th Schedule of the Constitution).
Roy earlier filed a petition before Chakraborty to disqualify the 43-year-old BJP legislator as he openly criticised Tripura’s BJP government and its leaders before joining the TMC at a function in Agartala last year.
“With the disqualification, Das would not be entitled to get any facilities, allowance and pension. Despite many letters and communication from the state Assembly Secretariat, he did not respond to any of it,” Chakraborty told the media.
The Speaker said that he has been examining the case of IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) MLA Brishaketu Debbarma, 44, who resigned from the Assembly in June 2021 and joined the TIPRA (Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance) headed by Tripura’s royal scion, Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman. The IPFT with eight MLAS is an ally of the ruling BJP.
Tripura Assembly Secretary, Bishnu Pada Karmakar told IANS that the Assembly Secretariat would send the Speaker’s order by speed post on Wednesday to Ashish Das.
Das, a Scheduled Caste leader and a BJP MLA from the Surma Assembly constituency in northern Tripura, refusing to make any comments on his disqualification said that he did not get any order or letter from the Speaker.