Patna, May 12: After their suspension from the party, four rebel Janata Dal (United) MPs are facing with the possibility of losing their membership from the Parliament with the party leadership initiating the formal process to unseat them.
Sources revealed that the party president, Sharad Yadav accompanied with the JD (U)’s parliamentary party leader Ramsunder Das and deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Ranjan Yadav met the Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar, and the Rajya Sabha chairman, Hamid Ansari, submitting them the letter demanding the axe on the rebel MPs.
The MPs under fire include Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, Manganilal Mandal, Sushil Kumar Singh (all Lok Sabha MPs) and Upendra Kushwaha, Rajya Sabha MP. R.C.P Singh, the former principal secretary to chief minister Nitish Kumar and the latter’s confidante who is now a Rajya Sabha MP too accompanied Sharad seeking the axe on Upendra Kushwaha from Hamid Ansari, sources said.
On March 28, Sharad had suspended the MPs from the party in the wake of the party’s disciplinary committee, after holding them guilty of anti-party activities during the 2010 Assembly elections.
The party’s central leaders, however, refused to officially speak on the development.
Even the MPs in question desisted from comments, stating they would give their plea before the chairs concerned. One of the MPs, on condition of anonymity, pleaded that he had neither denied the party’s whip nor had he crossed the floor so far. “I do not think that we are under the purview of anti-defection laws. Let the chair adjudicate,” he said.
The chairman of the disciplinary committee, Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, on whose recommendations the MPs were suspended, told The Telegraph: “Crossing the floor and defying party whip are only among a few clauses in the anti-defection laws to unseat erring members. They have indulged in anti-party activities, which are also strong grounds for losing their memberships. The party has all proofs including CDs to prove their anti-party activities.”
Gyanu does not appear wide off the mark, given the history of Captain Jainarayan Nishad who is JD (U) MP from Muzaffarpur. Nishad became BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP in 2004. But he fielded his son from the RJD in 2005 Assembly elections inviting disciplinary action from his party which prayed to the House’s chairman for unseating him for “anti-party activities”.
Nishad had neither defied the party’s whip nor had crossed the floor. But he was eventually unseated from the Rajya Sabha in 2008.
Ironically, the JD (U) that has sought the axing of its MPs for their anti- party activities accepted Nishad in its fold and fielded him from Muzaffarpur as the party’s official candidates against its founder-turned rebel, George Fernandes, in 2009. And Nishad was elected to the Lok Sabha defeating Fernandes.
There were speculations in JD (U) that Sharad differed with Nitish on the issue of rebel MPs and wanted a leeway to them.
In fact, he was believed to have succeeded in saving his supporter and Sitamarhi MP Arjun Rai, who too had been found guilty of anti-party activities in the initial report of the disciplinary committee.
But, the party boss has failed to defy the wish of the chief minister, the party’s de-facto party supremo, especially after its resounding victory in 2010 polls, with regard to other rebel MPs.
