Congress demands disqualification of CPI-M's Kerala legislator

The Congress on Wednesday slammed the ruling CPI-M-led Left for its "double standards", noting how opposition legislators, who failed to get a stay from a court, were disqualified by the Legislature Secretary during its tenure, but CPI-M legislator, A.Raja, was facing no action despite failing to get a stay on his disqualification by the High Court.

"It was on March 20 that Devikulam CPI-M legislator Raja was disqualified by the Kerala High Court and he was given 10 days to obtain a stay from the Supreme Court. And he failed to get the stay, but he continues to be a legislator.

"In 1997, Congress legislator Thampanoor Ravi was removed by the Secretariat the very next day after he failed to obtain a stay and likewise in 2018, K.M. Shaji, an opposition IUML legislator, was also disqualified by the Secretariat the very next day after he failed to get a stay. So Raja has to be removed and a case against him also should be registered for filing fake documents along with his nomination papers," Congress state party chief K. Sudhakaran said.

In the last week of March, the Kerala High Court, taking up in an election petition against Raja, filed by D. Kumar, the Congress-led UDF candidate, stating that Raja does not belong to the Scheduled Caste community for which the Devikulam seat is reserved for, disqualified him.

Kumar began his legal battle right from the time Raja filed his nomination to the 2021 Assembly polls.

And he pursued his legal fight soon after he lost to Raja by 7,848 votes.

Kumar had alleged that Raja is from a converted Christian community and had submitted fake certificates to make himself eligible to contest the seat as one who belongs to the SC community.

The court, however, allowed him 10 days to obtain a stay from the apex court, but he failed to obtain it.