Manipur Speaker Yumnam Khemchand Singh accepts resignation of Congress MLA Paonam Brojen, 5 others

Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly Yumnam Khemchand Singh on Friday accepted the resignation of Congress MLA Paonam Brojen, who along with five other party legislators had given up membership of the House and also quit the party.

While resignations of the five Congress MLAs were accepted by the speaker earlier, the matter of the sixth one was kept pending since his disqualification case was pending with the Speaker's Tribunal.

The Speaker's Tribunal has dismissed the disqualification case pending against Paonam Brojen under the 10th Scheduled of Indian Constitution prior to acceptance of his resignation from the membership of the state assembly, the speaker told reporters here.

Brojen represented Wangjing Tentha assembly constituency in the house. Six Congress MLAs had submitted their resignations from the membership of Manipur Legislative Assembly on Monday last, a little after the end of the one-day monsoon session during which the BJP-led government headed by N Biren Singh had comfortably won the confidence vote.

The speaker further said that allegations made by the applicants as well as documents furnished by them to prove that Brojen had joined BJP could not be authenticated, so the Speaker's Tribunal dismissed the case.

The six were among the eight Congress legislators who had defied a party whip and skipped the special session of the assembly on August 10 when trust vote was undertaken by the chief minister.

The very next day they had bid goodbye to the party too by submitting resignations at the state Congress office here. Besides Brojen, the five other Congress MLAs were Okram Henry Singh - nephew of Congress Legislature Party leader Okram Ibobi Singh- Oinam Lukhoi, Md Abdul Nasir, Ngamthang Haokip and Ginsuanhau.

The rest two, who had stayed away from the day-long special session of the house were - Md Fazur Rahman and Yamthong Haokip, who had informed the speaker that they were in home quarantine. Rahman later tested positive and was admitted to a hospital for the virus.

Congress which had won a total of 28 seats to emerge as the single largest party in the 60-member Manipur house after the 2017 polls saw members deserting it from time to time.

Soon after the election, one of its legislator Thounaojam Shyamkumar was disqualified under the anti-defection law for joining BJP.

Further, three Congress MLAs - Kshetrimayum Biren Singh, Yengkhom Surchandra Singh and Sanasam Bira Singh- were disqualified from membership of Manipur Legislative Assembly by the speaker. And early this week, six have resigned from the assembly and also given up membership of the party.