Suspended BJP MLAs revolt

Revolting against the BJP high command, five of its seven suspended MLAs in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly have withdrawn their resignations.

“Five of the seven suspended legislators have withdrawn their resignations after we met the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly here. We have asked the Speaker in writing that resignation letters which we handed to our party high command should be considered withdrawn,” suspended BJP MLA Baldev Sharma said.

“We had resigned on moral grounds. The BJP high command not only suspended us but also issued show case notices. So there is no ground for the resignation now,” Mr. Sharma, who led the panel of five suspended legislators to Speaker, said.

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Mohmad Akbar Lone, however, said that he has not received any resignation letter so far from BJP.

Assembly sources said that five BJP legislators had met state Assembly Speaker Lone and gave in writing that the resignation letters which they gave to the party high command should be considered withdrawn.

The suspended MLAs who withdrew their resignations include Baldev Raj Sharma (MLA, Reasi), Jadish Raj Sapolia (MLA, Basholi), Bharat Bhushan (MLA, Domana), Master Lal Chand (MLA, Bani) and Durga Dass (MLA, Hiranagar).

However, two suspended legislators -- former Union minister and senior BJP leader Prof Chaman Lal Gupta and R S Pura MLA Prof Garu Ram did not withdraw their resignations.

“I have decided to go for narco and brain mapping test on my own expense over the cross-voting issue. We want that all MLAs should go for brain mapping test to see who is guilty,” Mr. Sharma said.

BJP high command Nitin Gadkari had suspended seven party MLAs after a high level Parliamentary Board meeting on April 20. He also issued them show cause notices over their act of cross-voting episode in Legislative Council elections on April 13.

Rest of four MLAs -- Deputy leader of BJP Legislative party Jugal Kishore Sharma, Chief whip Ashok Khajuria, Sham Choudhary and Sukhnandan Choudhary were given a clean chit.

A day after the incident of cross-voting, the party had sought and got the resignation letters of all the 11 party legislators on April 14.

All the 11 legislators involved in cross-voting were summoned to Delhi on Tuesday.

Seven out of 11 BJP legislators voted for candidates of the ruling Congress-NC alliance, which won five out of the six seats for which elections were held.

This became clear when BJP candidate Ranjit Singh polled only four votes.