The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has written to Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra and Assembly Speaker CP Joshi stating that the alleged merger of BSP-Congress in the desert state is “unconstitutional”.
Rajasthan BJP President Satish Poonia on Monday said that BSP national General Secretary, Satish Chandra Misra had written to the Governor and the Speaker regarding the matter.
He also added that a petition is pending before the Rajasthan High Court as well.
Meanwhile, the BSP has moved the high court seeking to become a party in the petition by BJP against the merger of six BSP MLAs in the state with Congress party.
A BJP MLA had on Friday filed a petition in the Rajasthan High Court for quashing the merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress, a move which helped the ruling party to retain majority in the assembly.
The petition by Madan Dilawar also challenges the ‘inaction’ of the Speaker in not deciding on his plea seeking the disqualification of the Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs from the assembly.
The Rajasthan HC is set to hear the matter today.
The Speaker passed an order on September 18 last year declaring that the six MLAs will be treated as an integral part of the Congress.
The BSP MLAs had joined the Congress as a group after the 2018 assembly polls to avoid action under the anti-defection law.
Meanwhile, in yet another headache for the Ashok Gehlot government, which wants to hold a floor test to prove its majority in the wake of Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs declaring open rebellion against the Congress, the BSP on Sunday issued a whip to its six MLAs elected to the Rajasthan Assembly, directing all of them to vote against the Congress in case of any ‘no confidence motion’ or any other proceedings to be held during the upcoming session of the Rajasthan Assembly.
If any of them violates the order, they will face disqualification under Para 2 (l)(b) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India, said the whip.
All the six MLAs have been issued separate notices wherein they have been informed that since the BSP is a recognised national party, there cannot be any merger under para (4) of the Schedule at the state level at the instance of the six MLAs, unless there is a merger of the entire BSP everywhere at the national level which admittedly has not been done in the present case, and therefore they cannot claim any merger under any illegal and unconstitutional order of the Speaker which is against the Schedule as well as against several judgments of the Supreme Court, including the decision in the case of Jagjit Sing vs the state of Haryana in 2006.
Reacting in the whip issued, Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia told ANI that “a constitutional and legal situation has risen and therefore either the High Court should decide or the Governor should intervene in the matter”.
Meanwhile, BSP’s Rajasthan chief Bhagwan Singh Baba said the six MLAs had won the election on BSP tickets and CM Ashok Gehlot merged all of them with Congress. “This is not the first time it has happened in Rajasthan; it had happened in 2008 too,” he said.
The whip was issued as the MLAs had won elections on BSP tickets and therefore they can’t get involved in Congress’ activities or vote for them, Bhagwan Singh said and added that the decision was taken after much deliberation.