India News | Goa: MGP to Petition President to Make Anti-defection Law Stringent

Panaji, Feb 24 (PTI) The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) on Thursday said it will not challenge the order passed by the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on its disqualification petitions, but will request the President of India to amend the Anti-Defection Act.

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MGP MLA Sudin Dhavalikar had filed disqualification petitions against two former party MLAs – Manohar Ajgaonkar and Deepak Prabhu Pauskar – after they joined the BJP in 2019.

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The High Court on Thursday dismissed the disqualification petitions by Dhavalikar along with another petition by Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president (GPCC) Girish Chodankar.

Chodankar had told reporters earlier during the day that he will be challenging the High Court's order in the Supreme Court, while Dhavalikar said he would not do so.

“I am not going to challenge the High Court order on disqualification petition in the Supreme Court because of financial crunch,” the MGP leader said.

The party strongly feels that the Anti-Defection Act should be amended and made stringent for any MLA to switch sides, he said.

Dhavalikar said he would petition the President with a request to amend the Act. “The defecting MLAs should be barred from contesting elections for at least six years,” he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)