Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Madhya Pradesh High Court Indore bench on Monday issued notices to Assembly Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar and Bina MLA Nirmala Sapre seeking reply on disqualification of the Congress legislature from the House. The court was hearing the writ petition filed by Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Umang Singhar.
The MLA, Speaker (post), Speaker Tomar and principal secretary (Assembly) have been made respondents in the petition. The court accepting the petition, served the notices to the respondents seeking their reply within 10 days.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Sapre, the Congress MLA from Bina had defected to BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on May 5. Earlier in July, the LoP had filed a petition before Speaker Tomar seeking disqualification of Sapre under the anti-defection law. However, when the Speaker did not act on the petition, the LoP moved the court.
People familiar with the matter stated that in the petition seeking Sapre’s disqualification, the LoP has provided details of the events, press conference held by the MLA after leaving the Congress, social media posts by BJP leaders welcoming Sapre to the party and other supporting evidence. Sapre had contested the 2023 Assembly election on Congress ticket and won the seat. Officially, Sapre is still Congress MLA as she has not yet resigned from her membership in the state assembly.
