In a first court-intervened action since the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985, better known as the anti-defection law, was laid down, Mukul Roy, an MLA of the Bengal Assembly lost his membership for defection on Thursday.
Roy, who has crisscrossed between Trinamool Congress and the BJP before falling seriously ill, leaving both parties confused regarding his current position, is no longer the Krishnanagar Uttar MLA.
A high court division bench headed by Justice Debangshu Basak on Thursday set aside Speaker Biman Banerjee's decision that Roy was still in the BJP and disqualified him as an MLA.
The division bench of Justice Basak and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi held: "We have no hesitation in setting aside the impugned order dated June 8, 2022, passed by the respondent no. 1 (Speaker Banerjee) and allowing the petition for disqualification filed by the second writ petitioner (BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari), dated June 17, 2021. The respondent no. 2 (Mukul Roy) is declared to have become disqualified in terms of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India and the Rules of 1986 with effect from June 11, 2021."
Roy left Trinamool in 2017 and joined the BJP. He won the Krishnanagar Uttar seat in the 2021 elections as a BJP candidate but switched to Trinamool on June 2021 in an elaborately televised ceremony at the party headquarters.
On June 8, 2022, Speaker Banerjee declared that there was not enough evidence to prove that Roy had left the BJP.
With only months remaining for the 2026 Assembly election, a bypoll for the seat would not be necessary.
The four remaining BJP MLAs who defected to Trinamool without subsequent resignations were unlikely to face the music with such little time remaining. Three other BJP MLAs, who did defect had resigned, while another had returned to the BJP.
The BJP's 77-member strength in the 294-seat 17th Assembly, is down to 65 now. Seven lost to defections and five lost in bypolls. The lone Left-backed Congress MLA, Bayron Biswas, is the only non-BJP defector.
The strength of the Treasury benches is 225 now, not factoring in Behala Paschim MLA Partha Chatterjee, suspended from Trinamool in the 292-seat House (counting two vacancies because of the death of Trinamool MLAs).
Since Mamata's ascent to power in 2011, over 50 Opposition MLAs have switched sides to join her party. Many had defected to the BJP as well, ahead of the 2021 Assembly election. Many came back after Mamata's resounding win.
Although this is the first incident in Bengal where the court had to intervene in a case dealing with defection, in March 2009, the then Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim acted on a Congress complaint to disqualify Somen Mitra and Sudip Bandyopadhyay as MLAs, the first instance of the use of the anti-defection law in the state.
BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, a Trinamool turncoat, tried hailing Thursday's order as a victory of the Constitution, but got pilloried by not only Trinamool but also the CPM and the Congress.
"For nearly 15 years, the Constitution was violated under the leadership of Biman Banerjee. Before this, the CPM and Congress were battered (by defections). They had no ability to fight back.... This was necessary. Neither Biman Banerjee, nor Mamata Banerjee, but only the Constitution has the final say," claimed Adhikari.
"The BJP has shown that it is the only one capable of fighting the good fight in Bengal," he added and issued warnings to other defectors.
Trinamool, the CPM and the Congress flagged the BJP's infamous track record in the realm of defections to weaken political opponents or fell democratically elected governments.
They also called out Adhikari family's dubious past in terms of defecting without resignations and Adhikari's own role in Trinamool — overseeing defections at every level to wipe out the Congress and the Left in Murshidabad, Malda and North Dinajpur.
Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said when Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, allegedly at Union home minister Amit Shah's behest, turns a deaf ear to defections by MPs to the BJP, or when the BJP conducts Operation Lotus in state after state, does Adhikari consider them "defeat of the Constitution".
"Those who murder the Constitution, daily, in broad daylight, ought not speak this way," said Chakraborty, bringing up the persistent refusal by Adhikari's father and brother to resign as Trinamool MPs of the Kanthi and Tamluk Lok Sabha seats, respectively, despite publicly defecting to the BJP.
The Congress chief spokesperson in Bengal, Soumya Aich Roy, while lauding the high court ruling, tore into Adhikari's claims.
"Given what he did to engineer defections for Mamata Banerjee while he was in Trinamool... and what the BJP does through the infamous Operation Lotus to fell democratically elected governments in other states..., Suvendu Adhikari should show some semblance of shame and shut up," said Aich Roy.
He blamed both the BJP and Trinamool for the import of the "Aaya Ram Gaya Ram" political culture of the bovine belt, alien to Bengal prior to 2011.
CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said this verdict substantiated the Speaker's incompetence and failure to protect the Constitution. "I had shown in the Assembly that this Speaker himself had overseen defections down to the panchayat level...," he said. "But why is Adhikari making lofty claims? Neither ruler in Delhi or Calcutta respect the Constitution," he added.