Will seek action under anti-defection law against Mukul Roy if he doesn't quit as MLA: Adhikari

Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Monday threatened to approach the Speaker of the House seeking application of the anti-defection law against MLA Mukul Roy if he does not resign in a day.

Roy had last week rejoined the TMC, of which he was once the second-in-command after Mamata Banerjee, following his three-and-a-half year-long stint in the BJP.

He had contested the assembly polls on a BJP ticket and bagged the Krishnanagar Uttar seat.

Without naming Roy, Adhikari said, "An MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar has changed party, and we hope he will resign from the membership of the assembly. If he does not resign by tomorrow, we will write to the Speaker on Wednesday seeking application of the anti-defection law."

According to sources in the saffron camp, Roy, who was the national vice president of the BJP, was unhappy with the role and responsibility he was given during the elections.

Adhikari said BJP national general secretary Bhupender Yadav and Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad are "looking into the matter" and legal steps will be taken after seeking their opinion.

Read | Bengal BJP ignored Mukul Roy’s warning on organisational weakness

"The BJP legislature party has decided to take recourse to the law if the matter is not settled," the legislator told reporters outside Raj Bhavan here, where a delegation of saffron party MLAs held a discussion with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar during the day over the state's law and order situation.

Claiming that lawlessness has become the order of the day in West Bengal, he claimed that women are being subjected to atrocities.

"There seems to be no let-up in political violence since the declaration of assembly poll results. We have informed the governor about incidents of attacks and atrocities on women.

"It will be wrong if anyone thinks that freedom of speech can be gagged in Bengal by launching attacks on opposition party workers and instituting false cases against them," he said.

The leader of the Opposition alleged that more than 17,000 BJP workers had been staying away from homes for over a month fearing attacks.

Dhankhar, on his part, tweeted that Adhikari called on him and submitted a representation over the "alarming" law and order situation in the state.

"Over 50 Opposition MLAs expressed serious concern at lawlessness @MamataOfficial and partisan stance @WBPolice @KolkataPolice and sought intervention as the situation was sliding. Governor assured the MLAs and LOP @SuvenduWB that he will look into grievances of which he is aware," the governor wrote on the microblogging site.

Meanwhile, TMC Chief Whip in Rajya Sabha Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said that Dhankhar had been trying to "play up the issue of post-poll violence to impress the BJP".

"The way he talks about post-poll violence, it seems the situation is similar to that which arose out of the Arab- Israel conflict. The governor is crossing all limits and prescribed norms," the TMC leader maintained.

Roy further pointed out that BJP leaders had made "provocative statements" in the run-up to the elections, but the governor hasn't said much about it.

"State BJP president (Dilip Ghosh) had talked about aiming guns at the chest of TMC workers and leaders. What about that?" he said.

Making light of the BJP delegation's visit to Raj Bhavan, Roy added, "As per our information, 24 MLAs did not attend the meeting. Why were they missing?"