E-Paper
Rajasthan HC rejects plea on BSP MLAs’ merger
The decision came hours after the speaker upheld the merger while responding to the complaint by BJP leader Madan Dilawar filed in March, according to the lawmaker.
The Rajasthan high court on Monday disposed of a petition by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator who questioned speaker CP Joshi’s alleged inaction over the merger of all six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs in the state with the Congress last year.
The decision came hours after the speaker upheld the merger while responding to the complaint by BJP leader Madan Dilawar filed in March, according to the lawmaker. Dilawar’s petition in the HC sought a direction to the speaker to act on his complaint.
The move is a boost for the Ashok Gehlot led government which retains its tenuous majority in the house even as it fights a legal battle concerning the disqualification of a rebel group of 19 Congress lawmakers led by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.
In his petition filed in the HC on Friday, Dilawar said the speaker declared the six BSP MLAs – Sandeep Yadav (Tijara), Wajib Ali (Nagar), Deepchand Kheria (Kisangarh Bas), LakhanMeena (Karauli) and Rajendra Gudha (Udaipurwati) — as having merged with the Congress on September 18, 2019. The move increased the Congress’s strength in the House.
Earlier, Dilawar, the MLA from Ramganj Mandi constituency in Kota district, petitioned the speaker on March 16, seeking disqualification of the BSP MLAs under the 10th schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection laws). The speaker did not decide on the petition until Monday.
Around noon on Monday, Dilawar staged a sit-in at the office of the assembly secretary, PK Mathur. “The secretary told me that my petition had been dismissed. He told me that a detailed order will be provided on email. I am waiting for that,” Dilawar said.
Later in the day, a single-member bench of Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal disposed of Dilawar’s petition as the speaker had already decided on the MLA’s complaint.
State BSP president Bhagwan Singh Baba said the state unit will inform party chief Mayawati about the court’s decision. “The party high command will decide the further strategy,” he said.
At the time of the merger in 2019, Mayawati accused Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot of horse-trading.
In 2008, too, six BSP lawmakers merged their party with the Congress in the assembly. Gehlot was the chief minister then.
In a related development, BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra issued a whip on Sunday, asking the six MLAs to vote against the Gehlot government if there was a floor test in the assembly.
He added that the MLAs were elected on the symbol of the BSP and were bound by a party whip. Mishra said under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, local units of a party cannot merge with another outfit if there is no merger at the national level.
Legal expert Akhil Chaudhary disagreed and said that the BSP legislature party “is independent and not subordinate to its national presence or leadership”. The law also says “two-thirds of the members of the legislature party” are eligible to join another political party or form a separate party, he added.
“Therefore, there is no question over merger of the political party at a regional or national level. In our Constitution scheme, Vidhan Sabha is not subordinate to Parliament or any other house. The federal structure makes it independent, irrespective of multiple party systems. The merger is totally legal,” added Chaudhary.
