Guwahati, Oct. 3: The Assam Congress has decided to move the Speaker seeking action against nine party legislators who had publicly declared last month that they would join the BJP but have still not resigned from the Congress.

PCC president Anjan Dutta told The Telegraph this evening that they would first move the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) to take action against the MLAs, taking into consideration the Bishnu Sarma-headed PCC disciplinary committee's report.

"We received the disciplinary committee's report today. We will thoroughly examine it and send it to the CLP after approving its recommendations, be it their (nine MLAs') expulsion or disqualification. The CLP will then take it up with the Speaker," Dutta added.

The committee was formed soon after the MLAs went to welcome dissident Congress leader Himanta Biswa Sarma at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport here on his arrival from Delhi on August 28 after formally joining the BJP.

One of the recommendations of the disciplinary committee, Dutta said, is the expulsion of Sarma. This recommendation, however, will make no difference as the former Congress strongman resigned from the party and from the post of MLA last month after formally joining the BJP.

Normally, a party approaches the Speaker to disqualify any of its MLA if he/she joins another political party. Under such circumstances, the MLA concerned can also resign from the party on whose ticket he/she won the elections, as in the case of Sarma.

"We had issued showcause notices to the MLAs through registered post a couple of days after they met BJP president Amit Shah last month," a PCC general secretary said.

The nine MLAs had met Shah at his 11 Akbar Road residence in New Delhi on September 5 in the presence of senior BJP leaders Ram Lal, Venkaiah Naidu and Ram Madhav and expressed their willingness to join the BJP.

The legislators are Abu Taher Bepari, Pijush Hazarika, Jayanta Mallah Baruah, Pallab Lochan Das, Bolin Chetia, Binanda Kumar Saikia, Kripanath Mallah, Rajen Borthakur and Pradan Barua.

Sources said irrespective of when the CLP moves the Speaker for action, it is going to be a long-drawn process, as the nine MLAs have not formally joined the BJP yet.

Speaker Pranab Gogoi said the CLP leader or the chief whip has to first write to him stating why action should be taken against the MLAs. "I can act only if I receive a formal complaint from the CLP or any member. There is a set process to start proceedings of disqualification. I cannot act on my own on something said or done outside the House," he said.

Jayanta Mallah Baruah said they would join the BJP but no deadline has been fixed yet. "I have not received any showcause notice from the PCC so far. Disqualification is not easy. The Speaker will have to conduct a hearing and it has to be proved," he said.

On August 30, the PCC had suspended four MLAs - Baruah, Hazarika, Barua and Das - on charges of supporting Sarma after the latter joined the BJP and for making anti-party statements before the media. The four were among the nine who met Sarma at the airport and later allegedly made anti-Congress statements. The other five - Saikia, Bepari, Chetia, Mallah and Borthakur - were only issued showcause notices because they only met Sarma and did not make any anti-party comment.

Earlier in the day, Dutta told reporters on the sidelines of a function at Rajiv Bhawan that while 70 per cent of the party's sitting MLAs had a very good chance of winning next year's Assembly elections, 10 per cent would have to struggle for victory and 20 per cent only had a remote chance of winning.