Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla has referred a petition filed by the Trinamul Congress against the party’s Contai MP Sisir Adhikari under the anti-defection law, to the Privileges Committee for a probe.

“A petition given by Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay, MP and Leader of AITC in Lok Sabha against Shri Sisir Kumar Adhikari, MP under paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India and rule 6 of the Members of Lok Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985 was referred by the Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha to the Committee of Privileges on 11th January, 2022 under rule 7(4) of the Members of Lok Sabha Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985 for making a preliminary enquiry and submitting a report to him,” a Lok Sabha Secretariat bulletin read.

Once the Speaker receives the report from the Committee, he will decide on the future of Adhikari, who is the father of BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

Trinamul MP Sudip Banerjee had written a letter to Birla seeking Adhikari’s disqualification in May last year. Banerjee had also called up Birla in June requesting the latter to act upon the petition and take actions against Adhikari.

The Trinamul leadership has accused the octogenarian MP of defecting to the BJP ahead of the 2021 Bengal Assembly polls.

Though Adhikari did not formally pick up the BJP flag, he had shared the dais with the saffron party’s top leaders like Amit Shah while on campaign against Trinamul in Bengal last year.

While Trinamul is pursuing Adhikari’s case with vigour, it is not doing so in the case of MP Sunil Mondal, any further. Mondal had also defected to the BJP in December 2020. After the saffron camp’s poll debacle, Mondal had expressed his desire to return to Trinamul. The Burdwan East MP had written an apology letter to Trinamul’s top rung, following which the party dropped pursuing the anti-defection case against him..