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Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

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National

NCP in a quandary

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 15. The Nationalist Congress Party today found itself in a quandary after its lone legislator, Kamlesh Kumar Singh, failed to attend the Legislative Assembly proceedings in Jharkhand despite the whip issued by the party to be present and vote against the Arjun Munda Government when it took the vote of confidence.

Mr. Singh is yet to take the oath as a member of the newly-constituted Assembly even though he was sworn in a Minister in the short-lived Shibu Soren Government.

Mr. Singh had sent a letter to the Jharkhand Assembly Secretariat, a copy of which he marked to the party central leadership, stating that he had been admitted to hospital with a heart ailment. "We are clear that if Mr. Kamlesh Singh has violated the whip, the party would invoke the disqualification clause against him," the party general secretary, Tariq Anwar, said adding that it would have to take into account his health condition and the fact that Mr. Singh was yet to take his oath as a member. The party was getting a legal opinion.

The NCP alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to "lure" its lone legislator and had included his name in the list of Ministers called on the day Mr. Munda was sworn in.

Mr. Anwar and his colleague, D.P. Tripathi, accused the BJP of adopting "double standards."

"When the BJP was heading the Central Government it brought an amendment to the anti-defection law and now it is resorting to such unconstitutional methods [of poaching]," they said.

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