Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 11: In a major political development, the Bhartiya Janata Party is all set to take back its five out of seven party MLAs, who were expelled from primary membership of BJP for cross-voting in the Legislative Council elections in April 2011.
A unanimous and final decision in this regard is learnt to have been taken by the BJP Parliamentary Board on recommendation of the party’s Central Disciplinary Committee, sources informed the Excelsior.
A formal announcement on revocation of the expulsion of all the expelled MLAs, excluding Prof Chaman Lal Gupta and Jagdish Sapolia, is likely to be made within days by the Central leadership in New Delhi, sources added.
The MLAs, who are being taken back in the party, are Bharat Bhushan (Domana), Baldev Sharma (Reasi), Prof Gharu Ram Bhagat (R S Pura), Durga Dass (Hiranagar) and Master Lal Chand (Bani).
It may be recalled that these five MLAs along with Prof Chaman Lal Gupta (Jammu-West) and Jagdish Sapolia (Basohli), were expelled from primary membership of the party for six years for cross-voting in the Legislative Council elections, held on April 13, 2011. Despite having 11 MLAs, BJP candidate in that Legislative Council election was polled only four votes thus making it clear that seven Legislators had cross-voted in violation of the party whip.
Even as there was no clear evidence which could pin-point the MLAs, who had resorted to cross-voting, the BJP Central Disciplinary Committee, then headed by O P Kohli, had expelled these seven MLAs from primary membership of the party for six years.
Since then, a number of attempts were made for taking back these MLAs in the party but no success could be achieved in this regard for different reasons, particularly Prof Chaman Lal Gupta for whom the BJP high-command had some reservations.
According to the sources, a fresh initiative in this regard was made recently to further consolidating the party in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of Modi wave across the country.
After a thorough discussion in this regard at the party level and following a formal recommendation of the Central Disciplinary Committee, the apex decision taking body- Parliamentary Board, unanimously decided to take back five out of seven suspended MLAs, sources elaborated.
A formal announcement on taking back these five MLAs in the party is likely to be made by the central leadership in next few days, probably before the scheduled national executive body meeting on January17, sources added.
Though the State unit was not involved in the process at any level, sources hint that the national president Rajnath Singh has informally conveyed State BJP chief Jugal Kishore about the development.
When contacted, Jugal Kishore said that he was not aware of any decision on the revocation of expulsion and the high-command might have taken such initiative on its own.
Even as the Parliamentary Board did not take any decision on the fate of Prof Chaman Lal Gupta and Jagdish Sapolia, sources said that a positive decision on revocation of their expulsion also is likely to be taken at later stage for larger interest of the party, which is targeting to win more than 272 seats in the forthcoming Parliament elections.
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