The Congress now has five MLAs in the Assembly.
On Monday, two of them, John Jacob and N.R. Rengarajan, switched over to the G.K. Vasan camp. Sources indicated that efforts were being made to convince the long-time Vasan loyalist, J.G. Prince, to make the move.
Members of the Vasan faction believe the new party has a serious shot at having a presence in the Assembly even before contesting its first election.
Only mergers
The law recognises only mergers and not a split in the legislature party.
In other words, two-thirds of the MLAs of a party should defect and merge with a new outfit for recognition. Therefore, a senior leader said, if the new party brought a third MLA to its side, the Speaker could be persuaded to treat them as a new block.
“Two-thirds, or 66 per cent, of the MLAs of a party should defect. If we have three, it works out to 60 per cent. But we can take a shot at it as the discretion of the Speaker matters,” the leader said.
But a senior lawyer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there could not be any compromise on the ‘two-thirds’ rule as it was put in place after Supreme Court verdicts.
