The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Thursday issued letters to MPs Sisir Adhikari, Sunil Kumar Mandal and K Raghu Rama Krishnam Raju in response to petitions received under anti-defection law. They have been asked to respond to the letters within 15 days of their receipt, sources said.
Both Adhikari and Mandal had switched sides to the BJP from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) ahead of the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections. YSRC MP Raju, on the other had, has been allegedly involved in anti-party activities, leading to the party chief whip in the Lok Sabha requesting Speaker Om Birla to disqualify him. The YSRC alleged that Raju was elected on the party ticket, but he was indulging in anti-party activities.
Similarly in June, the TMC had requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to initiate action on the petitions filed by the party, seeking disqualification of Mandal and Adhikari.
Mandal, an MP from the East Burdwan seat, had joined the BJP in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in December last year. Adhikari, who joined the BJP in March this year, is an MP from Contai in East Midnapore district. His son Suvendu had defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the district’s Nandigram seat by nearly 2,000 votes.
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