BSP seeks stay on merger of six BSP MLAs with Congress in Rajasthan, hearing tomorrow
The outcome of the petition can have an impact on Gehlot government’s fate in the state.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA, Madan Dilawar, filed an appeal in the division bench of the Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday seeking stay on the Speaker’s decision to uphold merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress last year.
The appeal will be heard on Wednesday.
“We have prayed to accept our special appeal and to suspend the effect of the order of assembly speaker dated September 18, 2019, whereby he has declared that 6 elected representatives of BSP have merged with the Indian National Congress (INC),” said Dinesh Kumar Garg, counsel for BSP.
He said that earlier the single bench of HC had issued notice to the six MLAs, who are at present in a private hotel in Jaisalmer, and had sought a reply from them by August 11.
“As per the news published in the daily newspapers that the six MLAs were staying at a hotel in Jaipur and have now shifted to Jaisalmer in some hotels and therefore, service of the notices upon the respondents is not possible. The Rajasthan assembly session is proposed to start on August 14. If the stay prayed for is not granted, the present matter would be rendered infructuous and it will defeat the whole purpose of filing of the present writ petition before the court,” Garg said.
On last Thursday, the a single bench of HC had issued notices to the assembly speaker C P Joshi, secretary of assembly secretariat and six legislators, who won the 2018 elections on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) tickets and joined the Congress in September 2019, on two petitions seeking disqualification of the six MLAs.
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The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 11, by when the assembly speaker CP Joshi, secretary of assembly secretariat and six BSP MLAs — Sandeep Yadav (Tijara), Wajib Ali (Nagar), Deepchand Kheria (Kisangarh Bas), LakhanMeena (Karauli) and Rajendra Gudha (Udaipurwati)-- have been asked to submit their replies.
BSP national general secretary Satish Mishra and BJP lawmaker Madan Dilawar filed separate petitions in the HC against the merger on July 28 last, saying the move by the MLAs was unconstitutional as neither the state BSP nor the party at the national level had merged with the Congress — a contention the Congress has rejected.
