Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 5: In a significant decision which has caused a major blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and given a fresh lease of life to seven rebel MLAs of the party, Legislative Assembly Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone has finally ruled that entire BJP was one group and there was no question of disqualification of the MLAs unless ruled otherwise by the Court.
“I have settled the issue. The entire BJP flock of 11 MLAs is one group. They have one Legislature Party leader and 11 MLAs. No one would be disqualified unless the Court gives a direction to this effect’’, Mr Lone told the Excelsior ahead of autumn session of the Legislature, which was going to start on October 1.
The Speaker ruled that he would treat the BJP as one group in the Assembly and not two as was being sought by the official group, which had expelled seven MLAs from the party and disqualified them from the Assembly for allegedly cross-voting in April 13, 2011 elections to the Legislative Council seats.
Mr Lone said he would convey his decision to the BJP in clear cut terms that as far as the Assembly record and proceedings were concerned, they would be treated as one group.
“I have gone through the petitions and counter petitions filed before me by Jugal Kishore Sharma, BJP MLA from Nagrota and Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, BJP MLA from Jammu West. I have now decided that the BJP was one group and there was no split. No BJP MLA would be disqualified unless the Court gives such a direction’’, the Speaker has ruled.
The Speaker’s verdict has given a fresh lease of life to seven rebel MLAs of the BJP, who can now hope to complete their remaining term of two and a half years unless there was any adverse direction from the Court, where they had challenged their disqualification by Jugal Kishore Sharma.
The decision was not expected to go well with official group of the BJP but they have no option but to accept the Speaker’s ruling.
Worthwhile to mention here that the BJP had expelled seven MLAs from the party including Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, who was then Legislature Party leader, for allegedly cross-voting in favour of National Conference and Congress candidates in April 13 elections to the Legislative Council.
Besides Prof Gupta, other BJP legislators expelled by the party included Jagdish Sapolia (Basohli), Master Lal Chand (Bani), Durga Dass (Hiranagar), Baldev Raj Sharma (Reasi), Bharat Bushan (Domana) and Prof Gharu Ram (RS Pura).
The BJP had appointed Jugal Kishore Sharma, MLA Nagrota as new Legislature Party leader in the Assembly. Mr Sharma had moved a petition before the Speaker under Jammu and Kashmir’s Anti-Defection Law for disqualification of all seven MLAs of the party citing various grounds including violation of party whip and cross-voting in favour of ruling National Conference and Congress candidates.
However, the Speaker continued to treat all 11 BJP MLAs as one group and Prof Gupta as Legislature Party leader of the BJP.
Despite, the Speaker treating all 11 BJP MLAs as one group and keeping seats of some of them jointly in the Assembly, the two groups continued to maintain distance from each other. The Chair had been allotting joint time to all BJP MLAs to speak in the House.
BJP MLA Jugal Kishore Sharma had repeatedly protested treating all 11 MLAs as one group saying the BJP has expelled seven of them and disqualified them from the Assembly. The Speaker had ignored the pleas of Mr Sharma.
Even Congress Ministers and MLAs had, one some occasion, sought disqualification of all seven BJP MLAs as sought by their party leadership.
Sources admitted that the Speaker’s decision wouldn’t go well with official group of four BJP MLAs but they have no choice but to accept the decision unless the Court gave ruling in their favour.
On the other, the rebel MLAs of the party have got a fresh lease of life as now they would be able to complete their remaining term of two and half years unless the Court have an adverse ruling.
The BJP candidate in April 13, 2011 Legislative Council elections had polled only four votes as against 11 MLAs of the BJP. Seven BJP MLAs had cross-voted in favour of ruling coalition partners—the National Conference and Congress.
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