In Nanded, voting was held for 51 seats, of which Congress bagged 33. (File)The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Tuesday suspended party MLA Kh Joykishan Singh on disciplinary grounds.
MPCC general secretary (administration) Hareshwar Goshwami said that under Article XXVII(h) of the party constitution, a member can be suspended if s/he failed to attend party meetings thrice in a row.
Asked about Joykishan’s exit, BJP spokesperson Ch Bijoy claimed that most elected representatives from the Congress would join the saffron party. The BJP spokesperson added that the party is confident of winning more than 40 seats in the 60-member House.
Joykishan was elected from the Thangmeiband Assembly constituency in the 2012 Assembly election on a Trinamool Congress ticket but joined the BJP in 2015. In the last Assembly election in 2017, he won as a BJP candidate but joined the Congress.
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The suspension of Joykishan comes barely two weeks after the exit of senior Congress leader and Tipaimukh MLA Chaltonlien Amo and Tengnoupal MLA D Korungthang. With this, the Congress, which emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats in 2017, is now down to a mere 12 seats.
Joykishan could not be reached for comment despite several attempts.
Manipur is going to the Assembly polls in two phases on February 27 and March 3.
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