High Court notice to Rajasthan Speaker, 6 BSP MLAs over merger with Congress

Jaipur: The Rajasthan high court on Thursday issued notices to the Speaker of the state assembly, secretary of assembly secretariat and six MLAs who contested elections on Bahujan Samaj Party tickets and then merged with the Congress last year.

The court issued the notices while hearing a petition filed by the BSP against the merger of the MLAs into the Congress which is the ruling party in Rajasthan.

“The arguments took place on the maintainability of the petition after which show cause notices were to the Speaker of the assembly, secretary of the assembly secretariat and six MLAs. During arguments, examples from the previous Supreme Court rulings were cited,” said Dinesh Kumar Garg, counsel for BSP.

They have to submit their replies by August 11 which is the next date of hearing, Garg said.

The six BSP members of Rajasthan legislative assembly (MLAs) who had merged with the Ashok Gehlot–led Congress government are Sandeep Yadav, Tijara MLA, Wajib Ali (Nagar), Deepchand Kheria (Kishangarh Bas), LakhanMeena (Karauli), and Rajendra Gudha (Udaipurwati).

The petition is being heard by single-judge bench of justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal.

Garg told the bench that the merger was unconstitutional. The BSP did not merge with the party neither at the national level nor state level. As per law, parties merge, not legislators.

The BSP had earlier issued a whip to the six MLAs to vote against the Ashok Gehlot government in any proceedings of the House, including a no-confidence motion. A session of the assembly has been convened on August 14.

“Also, these six MLAs did not submit their resignations and so the whip was issued by the national secretary of BSP. Hence, they are liable to be disqualified under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India,” said Garg.

On Wednesday, BJP legislator Madan Dilawar had also filed two petitions in the high court requesting disqualification of the BSP lawmakers.