CHANDIGARH: Questioning Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala’s status as leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Haryana assembly, the Congress party on Thursday asked the speaker to ascertain if he had the requisite count of MLAs to continue as LoP.It started when health minister Anil Vij asked the speaker if there was any confirmation about INLD splitting. While Naseem Ahmed, INLD legislator from Ferozepur Zhirka, denied reports of any split, INLD rebel and Uklana MLA Anoop Dhanak termed it as the party’s internal problem. However, when Vij persisted on clearing the issue, Dabwali legislator Naina Chautala replied, “Yes, there is split”.Following this, Vij first sought separate sitting arrangements and then pointed out that it’s a constitutional issue and efforts should be made to find out if the present opposition party had the requisite numbers to be so called.Endorsing Anil Vij, senior Congress leader and Beri MLA, Raghubir Kadian, asked the speaker to take cognisance of it as there was a “constitutional” issue involved.Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda also urded the speaker to inquire if the leader of opposition had the support of requisite number of MLAs.Taking the discussion on another tangent, senior INLD MLA, Parminder Singh Dhull, said the members should declare in writing that the party had split.Senior legislator Raghubir Kadian also referred to statements of INLD chief O P Chautala regarding the split in his party and requested the speaker to take cognizance of the matter to clear all doubts.Unfazed by the row of demands, the speaker, ordered continuing of the scheduled business.The INLD had won 20 seats in the 2014 assembly polls. However, one of its MLAs, Nagender Bhadana (NIT, Faridabad) has been supporting the BJP, two of its MLAs Hari Chand Midha (Jind) and Jaswinder Sandhu (Pehowa) have died and four MLAs, including Naina Chautala (Dabwali), Pirthi Nambardar (Narwana), Anoop Dhanak (Uklana) and Rajdeep Phogat (Dadri), have joined Dushyant’s Jannayak Janata Party. With this, Abhay has been left with the support of only 13 MLAs. In this situation, the Congress party has become the main opposition party with 17 MLAs.National secretary, INLD, and retired bureaucrat, R S Chaudhary, however, said there is no threat to Abhay Chautala’s LoP status unless something is given in writing to the speaker.

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