E-Paper
All BJP MLAs forced to resign over cross-voting in J&K
All 11 Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were forced to resign on Friday for defying the party whip and cross-voting in the legistative council elections in the state. Vikram Sharma reports.
All 11 Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were forced to resign on Friday for defying the party whip and cross-voting in the legistative council elections in the state.
Seven party MLAs had voted for the National Conference-Congress combine, leading to strong criticism from the public and the national BJP leadership.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari has summoned all 11 MLAs to New Delhi on April 19. Though the entire team owned moral responsibility, party sources said they were ‘forced’ to submit their resignations.
“All legislative members have tendered their resignations addressed to the Speaker, while the same has also been forwarded to Gadkari, to take the final cognizance,” said JP Nadda, national general secretary, while addressing the media.
OP Kohli, incharge, and RP Singh, co-incharge, BJP, Jammu and Kashmir, were also present while the MLAs and national leaders met over the decision. “Though all have submitted their resignations, the process of identifying the seven culprits has been initiated and stern action will be taken against them,” said Nadda.
BJP state president Shamsher Singh had on Thursday taken a firm stand to expose the erring MLAs. The BJP candidate for the Jammu seat in the council polls on Wednesday secured just four votes, though the party has 11 MLAs in the assembly, exposing infighting within the organisation.
The NC and Congress – the ruling coalition partners – secured five out of the six seats contested. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) secured one seat from the Kashmir quota.
