Uttarakhand Assembly strength down to 60 after speaker disqualifies 2 MLA’s for cross voting
In a significant development, Uttarakhand assembly speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal on Thursday terminated the memberships of Rekha Arya, Congress legislator from Someshwar in Almora district, and Bheem Lal Arya, BJP MLA from Ghansali in Tehri district, for going against their respective party’s whip during the floor test held in the state assembly on May 10.
The decision regarding the disqualification, which was in the offing since the past few days, was taken by the Speaker under the anti-defection law. Kunjwal had earlier on Tuesday reserved the judgement on the fate of the two MLAs after hearing the arguments put forward by Bheem Lal Arya and BJP chief whip Madan Kaushik who had pressed for Arya’s disqualification. Congress MLA Rekha Arya failed to appear before the Speaker twice to reply to the show-cause notice served to her as well as Bheem Lal Arya on May 26. In an application addressed to Speaker Kunjwal, she had expressed her inability to respond to the notice claiming that she was unwell and hospitalized at Bareilly. She had also requested the Speaker to grant her 15 days’ time to reply to the notice.
