Following reports that the newly-elected Congress MLAs in West Bengal were made to pledge loyalty to president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the party said on Wednesday that the written undertaking of allegiance was a “voluntary” exercise.
“No instructions have been issued by the AICC or the general secretary in charge. This is a voluntary exercise…,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.
He said that in the last Assembly, 10 Congress MLAs were “poached” in violation of the anti-defection law. Reports said the PCC made all 44 MLAs sign an undertaking on a stamp paper in the denomination of Rs. 100.
The party is apprehensive about eight MLAs who have won with a margin of fewer than 5,000 votes and five fewer than 3,000. “I do swear my unqualified allegiance to the Congress led by Honourable Congress president Sonia Gandhiji and Honourable Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhiji,” the MLAs said in an affidavit.
