Renu Kushwaha, who was a minister in the erstwhile Nitish Kumar JD(U) government, on Monday filed a writ petition in the Patna High Court challenging a show cause notice issued to her and another suspended party MLA for dismissal of membership under the anti-defection law.
The petition was likely to come up before Justice Jyoti Saran on Tuesday. The two were to submit their replies before the Speaker by 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Ms. Kushwaha’s lawyer S.B.K. Manglam said that the petition prayed that there was no ground for application of the anti-defection law as she had not violated the party whip though being suspended.
Earlier on June 12, on the recommendations of JD(U) Chief Whip Shrawan Kumar, show cause notice was issued to Ms. Kushwaha and Anu Shukla for dismissal of their membership under anti-defection law, Assembly Secretary Hareram Mukhiya told PTI .
Ms. Kushwaha and Ms. Shukla were among four legislators suspended by JD(U) ahead of Lok Sabha elections. The other two were Sujatha Devi and Poonam Yadav.
Ms. Kushwaha and Ms. Sujatha Devi were charged with working against the party in favour of their husbands who crossed over to BJP.
Ms. Poonam Yadav was charged with working in favour of her sister Krishna Yadav who had unsuccessfully contested on a RJD ticket from Khagaria.
Ms. Poonam Yadav and Ms. Sujatha Devi had, however, fallen in line.
JD(U) was witnessing a problem in ensuring victory of their two candidates for Rajya Sabha bypoll — diplomat-politician Pawan Varma and Gulam Rasool Balyawi — with over a dozen rebels supporting Independents Anil Sharma and Sabir Ali against them. The Independents were also backed by BJP.
Meanwhile, leader of the dissident camp Gyanendra Singh Gyanu criticised JD(U) for the show cause to the two party legislators alleging that it was to silence protests.
“We will not be cowed down by such action,” he told PTI .
Mr. Gyanu said that if the Speaker ended the membership of the two legislators they would bring a no-confidence against him when the House assembled.
