After Assam party MLA loses status of leader of oppn, Cong claims Speaker acting as BJP agent

Condemning the withdrawal ofparty MLA Debabrata Saikia's status of Leader of Opposition inthe Assam assembly, the Congress on Thursday accused SpeakerHitendra Nath Goswami of ''acting as a BJP agent''.

Saikia lost that status as the present strength of theparty in the 126-member House is one less than the requirednumber of 21 MLAs, according to an official notification.

Hitendra Nath Goswami is ''acting as a BJP agent ratherthan the Speaker of the House'' and it is ''a clear politicalmove'' ahead of the assembly election due in March-April thisyear, AICC Media Department Chairperson Bobbeeta Sharma saidin a statement on Thursday.

The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee secretary BhupenKumar Borah and party MP Abdul Khalek have also jointly sent aletter to the Governor for restoration of Saikia's status asthe Leader of the Opposition.

''The present strength of the Indian National CongressLegislature Party, Assam Legislative Assembly, is not equal tothe quorum fixed to constitute a sitting of the House that isone-sixth of the total number of Members of the House,'' thenotification issued on January 1 said.

The number MLAs in opposition parties in many statesis less than one-sixth of the total members and they stillhave a Leader of the Opposition, Sharma said in the statement.

Sharma said that as per Section 2 of the Salary andAllowance of the Leader of the Opposition in Assam LegislativeAssembly Act, 1978, the Leader of the Opposition'' means thatmember of the Assembly who is, for the time being, the leaderof the party in opposition to the government having thegreatest numerical strength and recognised as such by theSpeaker.

The Act does not state that the number of MLAs in anopposition party should be one-sixth of the total strength ofthe House to get a Leader of the Opposition, she said.

Pointing out that following resignations and deaths ofmembers, the present strength of the Assam assembly is 119 andnot 126, Sharma insisted that Debabrata Saikia should havestill been the Leader of Opposition.

''It is obvious that the BJP is using this as anelectoral stunt. The people of the state now know what theyare and the answer to this will be given in the Assemblyelections,'' the Congress leader said.

Former minister Ajanta Neog and expelled Congress MLARajdeep Goala had resigned from the Assembly and joined theBJP on December 29 last reducing the opposition party'sstrength in the 126-member House to 20.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)