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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Keshrinath Tripathi on Tuesday issued notices to the ten Bharatiya Janata Party legislators, who were charged by the party leadership of violating the anti-defection law by putting up their own candidate against the official party nominee for the Rajya Sabha biennial poll that concluded on Monday.
The notices were issued in response to a petition moved by BJP State Legislature Party leader Lalji Tandon on Monday. The speaker has given a week's time to the MLAs for reply.
Asked if these MLAs would be entitled to vote in the bypoll to the lone seat in state Legislative Council on November 18, Tripathi told the mediapersons, "Well, they have time for reply until November 19. But that would depend on what the BJP leadership has to say on the issue."
In an obvious suggestion to the BJP leadership he said, "In case the BJP moves an application seeking restriction on the voting rights of these ten MLAs, I could issue an interim order on it."
Meanwhile, visibly undaunted by the move, dissidents were preparing themselves for a long-drawn court battle. "We are going to move the court against any arbitrary decision by the speaker," said Kovid Kumar Singh, one of more vocal rebels.
Even dissident leader and RSS veteran Ganga Bhakt Singh did not see any ground for invocation of the anti-defection law. "Merely signing the nomination papers of a candidate cannot lead to disqualification," Singh said, while adding, "In any case there was no whip issued by the party."
Another rebel Ravindra Singh Pundeer who had gone to the extent of publicly using loud invectives against Lalji Tandon on Monday, asked, "How can the speaker proceed against anyone for acts committed outside the purview of the house?"
The ball is, however, in the speaker's court. And knowing that he is a hardcore BJP man and that too a former lawyer of high repute and calibre, speaker Tripathi is unlikely to leave much scope for the rebels to get any remedy from the courts.
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