A Bharatiya Janata Party legislator on Friday moved the Rajasthan High Court against six Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs joining the Congress last year, PTI. The court will hear the matter on July 27.
The petition filed by Madan Dilawar sought quashing of the merger of two political parties at the state level. It also challenged the inaction of Assembly Speaker CP Joshi for not deciding on his plea, seeking the disqualification of six BSP MLAs.
“In my petition, I requested the Speaker to look into this merger as there is no such merger of BSP with Congress at the national level and what happened in Rajasthan is unconstitutional,” Dilawar told The Economic Times. “It has been around 130 days and the Speaker is yet to act on the petition.”
During last month’s Rajya Sabha elections, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra also raised the matter. He wrote to the chief election commissioner to not allow the former party MLAs to vote as Congress legislators. “Six MLAs were elected on party symbols given by BSP and after their victory, their names were duly notified in Election Commission’s gazette notification, which is in force till date without any change,” the letter said. “Even in Rajasthan Assembly gazette notification, they are notified as BSP MLAs. However, Rajasthan Speaker changed their nomenclature in his records without bringing it to anyone’s notice.”
The Speaker passed an order on September 18, declaring that the six MLAs will be treated as an integral part of the Congress.
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