Speaker rejects Marandi's plea to dismiss anti-defection complaints against him

Jharkhand Speaker Rabindranath Mahto Monday rejected BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandis plea to dismiss anti-defection charges against him and cancel proceedings under the anti-defection law on the ground that they were filed late.The speaker held hearings in the matter on Friday and Monday.The charges had been filed against Marandi in December 2020 after he merged his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha Prajatantrik party with the saffron party in February that year in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah here and was unanimously elected the leader of BJP legislative party.

Jharkhand Speaker Rabindranath Mahto Monday rejected BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi's plea to dismiss anti-defection charges against him and cancel proceedings under the anti-defection law on the ground that they were filed late.

The speaker held hearings in the matter on Friday and Monday.

The charges had been filed against Marandi in December 2020 after he merged his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) party with the saffron party in February that year in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah here and was unanimously elected the leader of BJP legislative party. Marandi's counsel R N Sahay said that the petitions against Marandi were not maintainable as they were filed 10 months after the merger of the JVM-P with the saffron party and the petitions should be dismissed. Even in the Representation of People's Act there is a limitation of 45 days, he said. The counsel for the complainants, Sunil Gadodia argued that there was no deadline to file a complaint in the matters related to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which relates to the anti-defection provisions.

The speaker had initiated anti-defection proceedings suo moto. The complaints were filed by former CPI(ML) legislator, Rajkumar Yadav, JMM legislator Bhushan Tirkey, Congress legislator Dipika Pandey and former JVM(P) legislator Pradeep Yadav.

Marandi had merged JVM (P) with the BJP on February 17, 2020 after suspending his two party legislators, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey who later merged the party with the Congress. BJP had sought the disqualification of Yadav and Tirkey, who was disqualified last month after being sentenced to three years in jail by a CBI court on corruption charges. The ruling on Yadav is still to be delivered.

In February this year a BJP delegation had approached Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais seeking his intervention in appointing Marandi as the leader of opposition in the 81-member state assembly.

The delegation led by party state president and parliamentarian Deepak Prakash had told the governor that the BJP legislative party leader Marandi, who was first chief minister of the tribal state, had not been accorded the status of leader of opposition even after two years.

He had alleged that the speaker had not taken decision on appointing the leader of the opposition since ths state poll in November-December 2019 at the behest of the JMM-led government. After Marandi joined BJP its number in the assembly grew to 26.

The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD has a combined strength of 47 in the House.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)