Shillong: The Congress, which lost 12 of its 17 legislators in Meghalaya to the All India Trinamool Congress on Thursday, said it was mulling legal action in this regard.
“Legally also we will fight. We are in touch with our lawyers. Soon we will also do something,” Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president, Vincent H Pala said while reacting to the defection of his 12 party legislators led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
“I expected this to happen. So, honestly, we all were prepared. Definitely, there will be damage done to certain areas in the Garo Hills, where Mukul, who was the chief minister and been in the party for so long, but there will also be a resurgence of the Congress, especially in the East, and the North and the South of Garo Hills,” Pala said in reference to Mukul Sangma taking the major chunk out of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) to merge with the TMC.
Former Assembly Speaker and veteran Congress legislator, Charles Pyngrope, who also defected to the TMC, said that the legislators have merged with the TMC by virtue of having two-third of the strength of the State legislature.
However, legal experts and political observers maintain that the defection of the Mukul- Sangma led faction of the Congress to the TMC would not attract any action under the anti-defection law as they have the requisite numbers with them.
