Two lawmakers — one each from BJP and JMM — lost their membership in the Jharkhand Assembly on Thursday after being pronounced guilty of defection by the speaker tribunal ahead of the monsoon session of the state ruled by the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition.

The JMM MLA from Borio Lobin Hembrom, who has been raising his voice against chief minister Hemant Soren in the last few years and BJP MLA from Mandu, Jai Prakash Patel, were found guilty of defection under the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution and the Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato cancelled the membership after a hearing for two-days.

“The hearing in the defection case went on for two consecutive days in the tribunal of the Assembly Speaker. The Speaker gave the decision to end the membership of both the MLAs after going through their written replies,” said a source in the Jharkhand Assembly secretariat.

While Hembram had contested the Lok Sabha election from Rajmahal against his party candidate and eventual winner Vijay Hansdak and had been suspended from the JMM by party supremo Shibu Soren on allegation of defection, Patel had contested the Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket against his party candidate from Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat and eventual winner, Manish Jaiswal.

Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA Amar Kumar Bauri had complained against him of defection. After hearing the arguments of the plaintiff and the defendant in both the cases for two consecutive days, both were asked to file written replies on Thursday. The Speaker gave the verdict within four hours of seeing the replies.

In the Hembram case, plaintiff Shibu Soren had said in the Speaker’s tribunal that he contested the Rajmahal Lok Sabha election against the party. Therefore, the JMM has taken disciplinary action. In such a situation, his membership should be terminated.

Hembram had said that he had not received any notice regarding his suspension from the party and that he had voted in favour of Hemant during the trust motion.