Jharkhand assembly Speaker Rabindranath Mahto said on Thursday he would soon decide on the disqualification petition against BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi, even as he advised the saffron party to take a decision on designating a new legislator as the leader of opposition.
The budget session of Jharkhand assembly is set to begin on February 27. It would be the 11th session of the fifth assembly, which would convene without a designated leader of opposition (LoP).
BJP, the main opposition party in the state, has named Marandi as its legislature party leader but the Speaker is yet to give him the LoP status due to the anti-defection petition pending with his tribunal.
The Speaker had concluded hearings in the case on August 30 and reserved his order.
“Soon after I reserved the order, they (BJP) challenged the proceedings in Speaker’s tribunal in high court. Although I did not issue any order, I was waiting for the outcome as I didn’t want the two independent bodies to be at loggerheads. Now that the HC has given its verdict and refused to intervene, I would take a call soon and issue my order on the issue,” Mahto told HT on Thursday.
He said he has been requesting BJP to choose another legislator for the post as several important government decisions are pending due to the stalemate.
{{/usCountry}}He said he has been requesting BJP to choose another legislator for the post as several important government decisions are pending due to the stalemate.
{{/usCountry}}“I would have straightaway given LoP status to any other legislator as BJP is the second largest party in assembly. Some important decisions like appointment of information commissioners and Lokayukta are pending for long as the LoP is part of the selection panel. Last year, even the court had inquired about the Lokayukta appointment from the government. I even wrote to BJP president, suggesting to give an alternate name so that such decision could be processed but they did not. They can do it even now,” said the Speaker.
Marandi had merged his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) party with BJP in February 2020 in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah and was unanimously elected the leader of BJP legislature party.
The Speaker, however, refused to give the status of leader of opposition to Marandi and subsequently initiated anti-defection proceedings suo motu. Marandi challenged the decision in the HC, arguing that Speaker can’t take cognisance on the matter.
In the meantime, complaints were filed by former CPI(ML) legislator Rajkumar Yadav, JMM legislator Bhushan Tirkey, Congress legislator Dipika Pandey and former JVM(P) legislator Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey. Even before the HC could decide on Marandi’s petition, the Speaker withdrew the proceedings under his suo motu cognisance and started proceedings as per the complaints of the MLAs.
Marandi had merged JVM (P) with the BJP on February 17, 2020 after suspending his two party legislators, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, who later merged their faction with the Congress.
After the complaints against Marandi, BJP too filed anti-defection petitions, seeking disqualification of Yadav and Tirkey.
Tirkey was disqualified in April this year after being sentenced to three years in jail by a CBI court on corruption charges. The petition against Yadav is still being heard in Speaker’s tribunal.
The BJP leadership, which has remained defiant, has accused Speaker of working under influence of the government and his party JMM.
Reiterating the charge, Marandi said the Speaker was free to take any decision but the stand of the BJP has been clear from day one that the case was deliberately made out to be a case of tenth schedule when the Election Commission of India had approved the merger.
“His (Speaker’s) intention was malafide from the beginning. He took suo motu cognisance in the matter. When I challenged it in the court, suddenly five persons from ruling parties filed petitions against me in the tribunal and the Speaker dropped the cognisance he took. I had challenged the proceedings in high court but the court refused to intervene. Let Speaker take his decision. We will act accordingly,” Marandi said.