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Breakaway BSP MLA challenges verdict

Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Breakaway Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Rajindra Singh Rana on Thursday challenged the verdict of the Allahabad High Court which on Tuesday by a majority of 2:1 held invalid the merger of 40 Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs who defected from the parent party and merged with the Samajwadi Party led by the Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav. The court, however, did not decide on the question of disqualification of the defected MLAs, but left it for the Assembly Speaker to take a decision on the issue.

While the Chief Justice, Ajoy Nath Ray, in a separate verdict dismissed the petition, two other Judges, Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice Jagdish Bhalla, held the merger invalid. While remitting the matter to be put before the Speaker, these two Judges said that in the meantime the group of 40 rebel legislators would be known as Loktantrik Bahujan Dal. The court refused to accept the argument of the BSP counsel, Satish Chandra Mishra, who claimed that the rebels should be considered as part of the BSP, their parent party.

On January 5, 2004, the Lucknow Bench had admitted a petition challenging the recognition granted to a separate outfit formed by the 40 BSP MLAs and then being permitted to join the SP. The case in the Assembly started when Rajendra Singh Rana who was then an MLA and Minister in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, along with Virendra Singh Bundela, another MLA and minister -- moved a petition before the speaker on June 15 last to dispose of the BSP petition demanding their disqualification from the Assembly along with 11 other members. The Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey by an order on September 7, 2005 had observed that since the splinter group had been recognised by the then Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi, it did not attract disqualification under Para 2 of the 10th Schedule of Constitution.

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