After the disqualification of four Janata Dal (United) MLAs last month, Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhury terminated the membership of four other rebel legislators on Saturday for “anti-party activities.”
The party had initiated proceedings against the MLAs for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha by-polls held earlier this year.
The Speaker said Ajit Kumar, Poonam Devi, Suresh Chanchal and Raju Singh would not be given any benefit available to former legislators.
Last month, the membership of Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, Ravindra Rai, Rahul Sharma and Neeraj Singh ‘Babloo’ was terminated.
After the eight MLAs voted against the official candidate in the Rajya Sabha by-polls, the party had served a show-cause notice on them and appealed for their disqualification. Some of them have challenged the Speaker’s order in the Patna High Court.
“It’s a dictatorial order at the behest of party leader Nitish Kumar. We’ve not been given any chance to make our case…,” said Mr. Ajit Kumar. The others said they knew that such a verdict would be delivered.
“JD(U) MLA Sharwan Kumar had declared a week ago that we would be disqualified on Saturday… We’ll now go to the people’s court and work for the termination of Nitish Kumar from the State’s political ground,” Mr. Raju Singh told The Hindu.
All the eight MLAs have not ruled out joining the BJP to defeat Mr. Nitish Kumar and his party in the Assembly polls due next year. “Nitish Kumar and his party will face Jharkhand-like rout in Bihar poll too,” declared Poonam Devi.
No threat to govt
With the disqualification of four more MLAs, the ruling party’s strength in the Assembly has come down to 107. But there is no threat to the government as the RJD and the Congress, along with some Independents, have extended support.
The RJD has 24 MLAs while the Congress has 5 and others have 6 members in the Assembly. The Opposition BJP has 88 members in the House.
