JVM-P to challenge BJP merger verdict in HC, move poll panel soon

RANCHI: JVM-P on Thursday reiterated that it will challenge assembly speaker Dinesh Oraon’s verdict on MLA defection case in Jharkhand high court and also move the Election Commission soon to seek its intervention.

Speaking to media persons at the party’s headquarters here, a day after the verdict Oraon ruled in favour of the six defected MLAs, JVM-P general secretary Bandhu Tirkey said the judgement was “unconstitutional” and dented democracy in the state.

“The speaker’s tribunal does not have the jurisdiction to approve the merger of any political party. Neither does the tribunal have the jurisdiction to approve that a party has been dissolved. It comes under the purview of the Election Commission. The speaker’s judgement was undemocratic and he has lost the moral right to be in his chair,” Tirkey said.

Oraon on Wednesday rejected the petition seeking disqualification of six JVM-P MLAs on grounds of defection under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution and validated the merger of the Babulal Marandi-led party with BJP.

Alleging that the tribunal had taken an unilateral decision, Tirkey said the party constitution provisions that a merger will happen after consent of the two-third majority of its central committee. “Only two central committee members of our party appeared in the hearings,” he added.

Tirkey also added that the EC, while replying to a RTI query in 2016, had stated that it did not receive any proposal on behalf of the JVM-P for a merger with BJP. “The party contested in several bypolls since 2015 and each time, its candidate were given the party’s symbol, the comb. This proves that the party did not merge with BJP. In fact, JVM-P never merged with any party since its inception in 2006,” Tirkey added.

When asked about the future of JVM-P’s sitting MLAs Pradeep Yadav and Prakash Ram in the assembly, party advocate R N Sahay said the Constitution provisions that such legislators will not be disqualified.

Meanwhile, JVM-P workers burnt effigies of six defected MLAs, chief minister Raghubar Das and speaker Oraon at Albert Ekka Chowk on Wednesday afternoon.

BJP had won 37 seats in the 81-member assembly while its ally Ajsu Party party had won five in 2014 state polls. A few days after the Das government took oath on December 28, 2014, six JVM-P MLAs — Amar Kumar Bauri, Randhir Singh (both ministers in the Raghubar Das cabinet), Navin Jaiswal, Janki Prasad Yadav, Alok Kumar Chourasia and Ganesh Ganjhu — joined BJP, taking the party’s strength to 43.