The decision of O. Panneerselvam, who has floated the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhaga Cadres Right Retrieval Organisation, to contest in Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency as an independent can be challenged under provisions of the anti-defection law but this does not necessarily lead to disqualification, according to former officials of Parliament and State Assembly Secretariats.
There are two grounds on which a legislator can be expelled: when he or she gives up membership of the party that sets him or her as a candidate and when he or she defies its whip. In the case of Mr. Panneerselvam, he was expelled from the party through a resolution adopted at a meeting of the AIADMK’s general council in July 2022.
“What grounds can be cited by the party for getting him disqualified when it had expelled him? How can it claim any association with him, after having expelled him?” P.D.T. Achary, former Secretary General, Lok Sabha, wonders. As for defying the party’s whip, that situation has not arisen in this case, he says.
