HC asks ECI to furnish details on JVM-P status before Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand

RANCHI: Jharkhand high court on Saturday issued a notice to Election Commission of India (ECI) and asked it to furnish details on the current status of the number of legislatures who belong to Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), a regional party in Jharkhand, before Rajya Sabha elections in the state. The next date of hearing is June 8 before which the ECI has to furnish its reply.
JVM-P has moved a petition seeking to postpone the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for June 11 in Jharkhand, because JVM-P leaders claim, there is a lack of clarity on the number of MLAs who belong to JVM-P.
“According to an RTI reply received from ECI the records of ECI show that JVM-P has eight MLAs while the Jharkhand assembly records pertaining to party-wise legislature 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 legislatures 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 claimed that they have merged JVM-P with BJP. The MLAs claimed that 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 condition do not apply to them. The defection was subsequently challenged by JVM-P which claimed that the MLAs had defected to the BJP and the party had not merged with BJP so the merger was invalid. The JVM-P defection case is pending in the court of Jharkhand assembly speaker.
On May 27 ECI in reply to a RTI inquiry said: “We have not received any request of merger of JVM-P with any party in Jharkhand. Following the RTI, JVM-P moved to the court on May 31 seeking postponement of the Rajya Sabha elections.
The legal angle came into picture at a time when the ground for Rajya Sabha elections 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 stakes on June 8 when it takes up the matter for hearing.
BJP spokesperson Pradeep Sinha said that party lawyer has put the stand of the party in the court on Saturday. “The matter rests on some technical grounds. BJP still stands with merger which is 100% legal and according to the rules defined by the constitution,” Sinha said.