Haryana Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar on Tuesday removed Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Chautala as the Leader of Opposition after two of his party legislators resigned. “I have removed Abhay Singh Chautala as the Leader of Opposition as the number of MLAs of his party has come down from 17 to 15,” Gujjar told PTI.
MLAs Ranbir Gangwa and Kehar Singh Rawat submitted their resignations to Gujjar. Hathin MLA Rawat joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Monday while Gangwa had joined the saffron party earlier this month.
The Congress, which has 17 MLAs in the 90-member Assembly, is now the main Opposition in the state. The speaker said that he will write to the state president of the Congress party to forward the name a legislator for the post of Leader of Opposition.
The move comes three days after Chautala said he had sent his resignation to the speaker with a few riders. In his resignation letter to the speaker, Chautala had sought the disqualification of Naina Chautala, Rajdeep Phogat, Prithi Singh Namberdar and Anoop Dhanak for joining Janata Jananayak Party. He had also asked that Gangwa be disqualified for shifting his loyalties to the BJP.
“Abhay had put forth some conditions for his resignation, which were vague,” Gujjar told News18. “Now the ball is in Congress’ court. Whosoever they nominate for the post, we will appoint him/her.”
There will be an inquiry into the status of MLAs who have switched parties. After the inquiry, they will be served a notice and called for a personal hearing, reported The Tribune.
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