Rebel JD(U) MPs Sharad Yadav, Ali Anwar disqualified from Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, on Monday disqualified "rebel" JD(U) members Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar from the upper house of Parliament, a party MP said.

The development comes after the Election Commission recognized the Nitish-led JD(U) faction as the real party and entitled it to use the reserved 'arrow' poll symbol.

This will be the first time in several years that Sharad Yadav will not be a member of Parliament.

The Nitish-led JD(U) had earlier approached the Rajya Sabha chairman seeking disqualification of the two MPs as they were indulging in "anti-party activities".

Janata Dal (United) chief spokesperson K C Tyagi had cited the example of Tamil Nadu assembly speaker disqualifing 18 AIADMK MLAs from the House and wanted a similar action to be taken against Yadav and Anwar.

Sharad fell out with Nitish after the Bihar chief minister walked out of the grand alliance with Congress and RJD and formed government with the BJP and other NDA partners in July this year.

Nitish, who is also the JD(U) national president, had stripped Sharad of the parliamentary party leadership post and replaced him with JD(U) national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member R C P Singh.

(With inputs from agencies)