HC asks EC to give list of JVM(P) MLAs

Ranchi: Jharkhand high court on Saturday asked the Election Commission of India to provide the correct number of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) legislators before Rajya Sabha the election on June 11. The next date of hearing is June 8 before which the EC has to reply to the notice.
JVM(P) has moved a petition seeking postponement of the RS election in Jharkhand and claimed that there was lack of clarity on the number of MLAs belonging to the regional party.According to an RTI reply received from the EC, the records of Election Commission show that JVM(P) has eight MLAs while the Jharkhand assembly records pertaining to party-wise legislator details in the state show that JVM(P) has only two MLAs, said JVM(P) lawyer R N Sahay who appeared for the party in the court.
"In the court of justice Ratnakar Bhengra, we pleaded that the elections be postponed because in current situation the legislators would be confused with regard to casting their franchise during elections," Sahay said.
In early 2015, six MLAs of JVM(P) had defected to BJP. The defecting MLAs had claimed that JVM(P) and BJP had merged as they were more than two-third of the total number of JVM(P) legislators and thus the anti-defection laws defined in the 10th schedule of the Constitution do not apply to them. The defection was subsequently challenged by JVM(P) which claimed that the party had not merged with BJP and the merger was invalid. The JVM(P) defection case is pending in the court of Jharkhand assembly speaker.
On May 27, the EC in reply to an RTI inquiry, said: "It has not received any request of merger of JVM(P) with any party in Jharkhand. Following the RTI, JVM(P) moved the court on May 31 seeking postponement of the Rajya Sabha election.
The legal angle came into picture at a time when the ground for the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand is ready. BJP has fielded union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqbi and BJP leader state leader Mahesh Poddar. With the support of Congress, JMM has fielded Shibu Soren's son Basant Soren against the BJP nominees. Hectic parlays are on to gather the support of opposition parties for Soren.
All eyes are set on the stand HC takes on June 8 when it takes up the matter for hearing. BJP spokesperson Pradeep Sinha said that party lawyer has submitted the stand of the party in the court on Saturday. "The matter rests on some technical grounds. BJP still stand with merger which is 100% legal and according to the rules defined by the constitution," Sinha said.