Speaker okays resignation of five Congress MLAs
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 11 2020: Out of the six Congress MLAs who tendered their resignation from the membership of Manipur Legislative Assembly yesterday, resignation letters submitted by five of them have been approved by Speaker Y Khemchand.

Subsequently, the Assembly Secretary issued a bulletin (part 2) and a notification this afternoon whereby it was declared that five more Assembly seats are now vacant.

The five MLAs whose resignations have been approved are Okram Henry (Wangkhei AC), Oinam Lukhoi (Wangoi AC), Md Abdul Nasir (Lilong AC), Ngamthang Haokip (Saitu AC) and Ginsuanhau (Singngat AC).

However, the resignation letter of Wangjing-Tentha AC MLA Paonam Brojen has not yet been approved by the Speaker.

Notably, P Brojen is facing a disqualification case at the Speaker's Tribunal and the final round of hearing has been fixed on August 14.The tribunal's judgement would be announced on the same day, sources informed.

Meanwhile, the six MLAs who tendered their resignation from the membership of Manipur Legislative Assembly yesterday submitted resignation letters to the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president today.

Although Manipur Legislative Assembly has 60 seats in total, the effective strength has been reduced to 47 following resignation of three BJP MLAs, disqualification of four Congress MLAs and resignation of six other Congress MLAs even though the resignation of P Brojen is yet to be approved by the Speaker.

Earlier, four Congress MLAs namely Th Shyamkumar (Andro AC), Ksh Biren (Lamlai AC), Sanasam Bira (Kumbi AC and Y Surchandra (Kakching) were disqualified by the Speaker's Tribunal.

This was followed by resignation for three BJP MLAs namely Samuel Jendai (Tamenglong AC), TT Haokip (Henglep AC) and Soibam Subashchandra (Naoriya Pakhanglakpa AC).

The latest resignation drama came from the Congress camp with as many as six MLAs resigning from both the party and membership of Manipur Legislative Assembly.

Following the latest developments, the BJP-led coalition has 29 MLAs while the strength of Opposition Congress has been reduced to 18.Significantly, Congress party pocketed 28 seats and emerged as the single largest party in the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly election held in 2017.BJP won 21 seats.

But at the moment, both BJP and Congress have 18 Members each in the State Assembly.

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