Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha poll battle reaches courtroom

LUCKNOW: Apart from managing numbers for RS polls on March 23 through dinners, ruling BJP and SP-BSP alliance have taken the battle to the courtroom as now the fate of SP and BSP candidates would be decided by two jailed MLAs -- one each of Samajwadi Party and BSP.

BSP national general secretary, Rajya Sabha member and an eminent Supreme Court lawyer, Satish Chand Mishra filed a petition in Allahabad High Court praying for the release of two MLAs -- Mukhtar Ansari of the BSP and Hariom Yadav of the SP -- so that they could participate in the voting on March 23.

Representing the government, Advocate General Raghvendra Singh challenged the petition stating that under the 62( 5) provision of the People’s Representative Act, anyone in the police custody is not
allowed to participate in  voting
.
However, countering the submission, Mishra argued that the two MLAs were not in the police custody, but in judicial custody and the past precedents  also show that  imprisoned MLAs have been allowed to cast votes in elections. The final hearing will take place on Thursday. Satish Chand Mishra  had met the Election Commission in Delhi on Tuesday seeking release of the two MLAs, but possibly failed to get relief.