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Ambiguity over Cong party’s current strength in Lok Sabha, Website shows 49 & 1 separately however RTI reply mentions straightway 50
Preneet Kaur, MP from Patiala has till date only been suspended & not expelled from Cong
Advocate files First Appeal before Addl. Secy. of Lok Sabha to clear confusion
Chandigarh (Sursaanjh.com Bureau), 3 July:
If the current strength of Indian National Congress (INC) i.e. Congress Party in the current 17th Lok Sabha is 50 or else 49 & 1 separately.
It may appear awkward but it is actually true that whenever one logs in the new official website of House of the People (Lok Sabha) i.e. http://sansad.in/ls which was launched with much fanfare in April, 2023, it shows the current strength of Congress Party as 49 and 1 separately i.e in other words, 49 members are shown as of INC and 1 member being also shown as of INC but separately.
Amidst prevalence of this ambiguity, Hemant Kumar, an Advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court filed an online RTI with Lok Sabha Secretariat on 9 June 2023 seeking information on two counts. Firstly information pertaining to the newly launched Lok Sabha website
On 22 June 2023, K. Siva, Deputy Secretary& CAPIO (Central Assistant Public Information Officer) on behalf of CPIO of Lok Sabha Secretariat in its reply mentioned that as on 30 May 2023, the strength of INC in 17th Lok Sabha is 50. The copy of Party Position in Lok Sabha has been enclosed which shows Cong party’s tally as 50 as on date. It is further mentioned in the RTI reply that the rest part of query is in the nature of seeking clarification/opinion, which does not fall within the definition of “information” under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005.   Meanwhile, Hemant, being dissatisfied with the aforementioned reply, and for clearance of above confusion, has preferred an Appeal under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 before Additional Secretary of Lok Sabha Secretariat who is the First Appellate Authority and the same is currently pending adjudication.
The Advocate told that the initial strength of Congress Party after Apr-May, 2019 General Elections to 17th Lok Sabha was 52. Later in Aug, 2020, this tally reduced to 51 due to the death of H. Vasantha Kumar, then Cong MP from Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu. However, this seat was retained by the Cong Party in May, 2021 after party candidate Vijay Vasanth won the Bye-Election from Kanyakumari seat taking the tally again to 52. Then in Nov, 2021, the Party’s strength increased to 53 after Cong nominee Pratibha Singh won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat Bypoll in Himachal Pradesh. This seat was previously being represented by BJP.
Earlier this year on 14 Jan 2023, the death of Chaudhary Santokh Singh, then
Cong MP from Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in Punjab again reduced the Cong strength in Lok Sabha to 52. Then on 23 March 2023, following the conviction of then Cong MP Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case by a Surat court in Gujarat which awarded him two years imprisonment, he got disqualified from Lok Sabha which reduced the Party’s strength to 51. Rahul was elected as Lok Sabha member from Wayanad seat in Kerala in May, 2019. Then on 30 May 2023, due to the demise of Cong MP from Chandrapur Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra, Balubhau alias Suresh Narayan Dhanorkar, the Cong Party’s tally further reduced to 50 in Lok Sabha.
Be that as it may, Hemant says earlier this year in Feb, 2023 the Cong party suspended its MP from Patiala Lok Sabha seat in Punjab, Preneet Kaur, the wife of former Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh, who is now in BJP. However, till date Preneet has not been formally and officially expelled from the Congress Party. But even if she is expelled from the Congress, she would still continue to remain a member of Congress Parliamentary Party in the current 17th Lok Sabha and would be bound by the party’s whip in the House. Now it remains to be seen if merely post-suspension ( and not expulsion) from Cong party, Lok Sabha MP Preneet Kaur can be declared to be as an unattached member in the House by the Speaker Om Birla ? Also if one member of INC being shown separately is indeed Preneet Kaur or else he or she is some other Cong MP, this information must be disclosed by Lok Sabha Secretariat. Morevoer it remains to be seen if a dissenting or rebel MP of a Party, who has been suspended from such a Party, can be shown separately from its Party’s tally in the House albeit with the name of the very same Party, quips Hemant.
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