NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party on Friday expelled six whip-defying MPs who cross-voted against the government during the confidence motion and four out of 28 MPs have escaped action so far by their respective parties for not falling in line.
After 17 cross-voting MPs were thrown out by opposition parties for voting in favour of the government since Tuesday, it was the turn of MPs who were part of the UPA grouping to face the axe for not supporting the ruling coalition. With today's expulsion, 23 of the 28 MPs from rival camps who violated the party whip have been ousted.
"We have expelled the six MPs for defying the party directive. We will inform the Speaker about our decision tomorrow," SP General Secretary Amar Singh told reporters.
The MPs who are expelled from the party are Jai Prakash (Mohanlalganj), S P Singh Baghel (Jalesar), Raj Narain Budholia (Hamirpur), Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur), Ateq Ahmed (Phulpur) and Munnawar Hussain (Muzaffarnagar).
Of the remaining five MPs who violated the whip, TRS's Narendra, who voted for the government, has already been expelled for anti-party activities before the trust vote but his party moved today petitioning Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to disqualify him.
The four MPs against whom action were yet to be taken included NPF's W Wangyuh Konyak and NLP''s Baleswhwar Yadav who defied their party and voted for the government. The other two were TDP's D K Audikesavalu, who abstained instead of following the party''s directive to vote for the government and Congress' Kuldeep Bishnoi who voted against the government.
The MDMK after expelling its two MPs-- L Ganesan and Gingee N Ramachandran-- for voting in favour of the government moved today filed a petition before the Lok Sabha Secretariat seeking their disqualification.
