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| R.S. Mooshahary |
Shillong, March 19 : Meghalaya Governor R.S. Mooshahary was apparently angered by Speaker Bindo Lanong’s refusal to adhere to Raj Bhavan’s list of dos and don’ts during the trial of strength, prompting him to take the drastic step of recommending President’s rule.
Congress leaders and sources in the Raj Bhavan said Mooshahary consulted legal experts and went through the video footage and written documents of the Assembly proceedings before taking the decision.
Soon after the MPA won the trial of strength with the Speaker’s casting vote, CLP leader D.D. Lapang met the governor with 31 MUA legislators yesterday.
“After the meeting, the governor was satisfied that we had the majority,” senior Congress legislator Charles Pyngrope told this correspondent.
He said the governor had sought the opinion of former Advocate-General Anil Sharma before sending his recommendation to the Centre.
On the eve of the trial of strength, the Speaker had sought the opinion of Advocate-General G.S. Massar on the four-point message of the governor asking the Speaker to record the proceedings of the trial of strength in video, conduct the voting with the use of ballot papers, maintain status quo and the rights of speech of the members till the confidence motion was disposed of by the House and not take up any other item during the trust vote.
Quoting Massar, he said during the trial of strength that Article 175(2) of the Constitution did not empower the governor to send a message in the form of directives to the House other than matters related to pending bills.
Of the four-point directive, he allowed only videography of the proceedings.
A Raj Bhavan source said the governor had taken exception to the Speaker’s stand in rejecting his other directives.
The governor also termed the Speaker’s ruling to suspend five legislators as unconstitutional.
Following the imposition of President’s rule, the usual blame game has started in the state.
NCP leader P.A. Sangma termed the development as surprising and blamed the Congress while Lapang accused the MPA for the crisis.
“It is unconstitutional and we are going to challenge it in the Supreme Court,” Sangma said, adding that he would leave for Delhi tomorrow to discuss the matter with lawyers.
BJP organising secretary Dipayan Chakraborty blamed the Congress for the crisis.
“President’s rule can be termed as life giving drops to the Congress,” Lanong, a UDP leader, said.