Sharad Yadav dismisses Nitish Kumar's petition to disqualify him from Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Dissident JDU leader Sharad Yadav has told Rajya Sabha chairman that the charges levelled against him by the Nitish Kumar camp in its petition seeking his disqualification from the Upper House were not only ‘baseless’ but also ‘not maintainable’ as they fail to ‘fulfil relevant provisions of the anti-defection law’ and that the petition ‘can’t be proceeded with under the Tenth Schedule’ when the core dispute – for the party and its symbol – is sub judice, pending before the Election Commission, sources said.

In his 202-page reply submitted on Saturday, according to sources, Yadav has questioned the credentials of the Nitish camp to accuse him of ‘voluntarily giving up party membership’ and claimed it was the Nitish camp that committed ‘defection’ and asserted his presence at the recent RJD rally in Patna was ‘not against JDU’ but was ‘to strengthen the party’s stated anti-BJP line’. As evidences, Yadav has attached recordings of speeches of Kumar, calling for “anti-BJP maha-gadbandhan”.

“Voluntarily giving up membership involves the determination of who the ‘party’ is. Since the said question is pending before the EC, the petition cannot be proceeded with under the Tenth Schedule, ” Yadav’s reply said, adding his group has argued before EC of having “majority support within the party.”

Projecting Nitish camp as the betrayer, Yadav’s reply adds: “The goal of the Nitish faction to silence the deponent by invoking the Tenth Schedule reminds one of the famous words in the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar, uttered by the proponent, when betrayed by his closest aides, ‘Et tu Brute’.

The reply then states: “The petition is not maintainable and fails to satisfy the pre-conditions mentioned in Rule 6 of the Disqualification Rules, 1985. The petition does not fulfill the pre-conditions of Rule 6, so it is liable to be dismissed under Rule 7(2)”.