New Delhi : Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, along with 20 MPs, who joined the Nationalist Citizens’ Party of India (NCPI) after defecting the Trinamool Congress (TMC), requested Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for two more weeks, until 3 November, to answer his queries regarding their move.
Earlier, Birla granted the group of MPs time until October 20 to submit their replies. However, the MPs failed to answer his queries. This is the fourth time Sudip-Kakoli and others have sought an extension.
Initially, on 22 September, the Speaker’s office set an October 8 deadline for the MPs to respond. Failing to meet the deadline, they requested an additional two weeks.
Senior Member of Parliament Sudip Bandopadhyay and his associates emailed the Speaker’s office on October 8 asking for additional time. In this case, the Supreme Court granted the NCP (I) MPs one month. They must submit their response within that timeframe. Even after the October 20 deadline, the 20 MPs can request an extension.
In 20 separate letters to Speaker Om Birla, Abhishek Banerjee demanded the disqualification of all the 20 MPs, who won the West Bengal assembly elections on TMC tickets but joined the NCPI.
The matter was also the subject of a Supreme Court case. Chief Justice Surya Kant’s bench made it clear that the court would monitor the Speaker’s actions throughout the entire case, even though the apex court did not set a deadline for the Speaker.
