Rajasthan HC to hear BJP MLA’s pleas on BSP-Congress merger today

JAIPUR: BJP MLA Madan Dilawar filed two fresh petitions before the Rajasthan high court challenging the

BSP-Congress

merger on Tuesday. Both the petitions were listed for hearing before the single bench of Justice Mahendar Kumar Goyal on Wednesday.

The first petition challenges speaker CP Joshi’s decision on the BJP MLA’s complaint against the merger, while the second petition challenges the BSP-Congress merger as violation of Constitution’s Schedule X.

“The speaker rejected my complaint citing a technical lacuna, which is laughable. He said the copy of the speaker's decision allowing the merger that I attached with my complaint was not attested,” Dilawar told TOI. “The complaint filed in March was rejected in July on a flimsy ground even though the Supreme Court rulings say that small mistakes can be overlooked,” the BJP MLA said, adding that the speaker did not go into the merit of the matter. “The speaker rejected my complaint without giving me the opportunity to be heard. Even to get the copy of his decision I had to sit on dharna (on Monday),” Dilawar said.

Six BSP MLAs—Sandeep Yadav (Tijara), Wajib Ali (Nagar), Joginder Singh Avana (Nadbai), Deepchand Kheria (Kishangarh Bas), Lakhan Singh Meena (Karauli) and Rajendra Gudha (

Udaipurwati

)—into Congress with approval from the speaker in September last year.

The BJP MLA’s lawyer Ashish Sharma said, “We have challenged the merger on legal grounds, which include violation of the constitution's Schedule X.”

The petition has prayed for disqualification of six MLAs saying that they voluntarily gave up BSP membership by seeking merger into the Congress. “As per Para (4) of Schedule X, the condition of two-third numbers to accept a merger is second condition, but the first condition is that the original party of the legislators seeking merger should have merged into the other political party. Even if all MLAs of a party decide, the merger cannot be legal until the original party decides to merge. In this case, the MLAs never claimed the BSP merged into Congress but sought only their merger into Congress,” the petition says.