Another Cong MLA’s membership under threat, Rajendra Bharti jailed for forgery

Bhopal: Two months before the Rajya Sabha elections in the state, the membership of one more Congress MLA is threatened. The party has already lost the voting rights of MLA Mukesh Malhotra after a Supreme Court order.In a major jolt to the state Congress on Wednesday, the party's MLA from Datia seat, Rajendra Bharti, who defeated former home minister Narottam Mishra by a margin of 7,742 votes in the 2023 assembly election, has been convicted and jailed by a Delhi Rouse Avenue District Court. The 67-year-old Bharti has been jailed in connection with a bank fraud case.Bharti allegedly made a fixed deposit of Rs 10 lakh in his mother's name for three years at the Zila Sahkari Krishi Bhoomi Vikas Bank (District Cooperative Agricultural Land Development Bank) at 13.50% interest. Maturity of the fixed deposit was due in 1998, but he increased the tenure of the fixed deposit to 15 years and continued to draw interest at a higher rate. The Congress MLA was chairman of the bank in Datia from 1984 to 2000.State Congress president Jitu Patwari said, "We have seen what happened in the case of Mukesh Malhotra, our MLA from Vijaypur. The high court annulled his membership, which has been stayed by the Supreme Court. In Rajendra Bharti's case also, we will appeal before a higher court. BJP is unnecessarily harassing our MLAs. And people will avenge this in the next elections."The case was registered by a bank employee who alleged that Rajendra Bharti, another Raghuveer Sharan Prajapati and Savitri Devi forged documents to cheat the bank. In Oct last year, after hearing a plea by the Congress MLA, the Supreme Court transferred the case from a Gwalior court to Delhi. Three Rajya Sabha seats are getting vacated between April and June — two of BJP (Union minister of state George Kurien; MP Sumer Singh Solanki) and one of Congress (former chief minister Digvijaya Singh). With a total of 230 seats in the assembly, the number of MLAs required for each seat is 58. BJP has 165 MLAs, Congress has 64. For two Rajya Sabha MPs, BJP needs 58+58=116 votes. The ruling party will still have 49 MLAs if it wants to contest for the third seat.One Congress MLA from Bina seat Nirmala Sapre joined BJP in May 2024 but was not given primary membership of the ruling party. Her defection case is now before the high court. Congress said, "Sapre will either not be permitted to vote or she might abstain." The party's MLA from Vijaypur seat, Mukesh Malhotra, has lost his voting right after a Supreme Court order. And now Rajendra Bharti's right to vote may also be threatened after Wednesday's verdict. Congress seems to have lost three votes for the Upper House elections due in June or July.After the cross-voting reported from Haryana and Odisha during the Rajya Sabha elections in March, the opposition party's fear will be cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections. Congress may have 61 MLAs with voting rights, but some like deputy LOP Hemant Katare are presently unhappy. During the last assembly session, Katare sent in his resignation from the post while the House was debating the annual budget provisions.