NEWS
VIEWS
INTERVIEWS
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ISSUES '98
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
POLLING BOOTH
INDIA SPEAKS!
YEH HAI INDIA
CHAT

Lok Shakti questions Dal's move to disqualify three ex-ministers

The Lok Shakti on Friday questioned the moral right of the ruling Janata Dal in Karnataka to seek the disqualification of three former ministers who had joined the apolitical Rashtriya Navanirmana Vedike, and said it would face the petitions.

Lok Shakti spokesman M Raghupathy said the party had total faith in assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar and "he would not come under the pressure of the Janata Dal". If necessary, the party would deal with the issue legally, he added.

He claimed that the Janata Dal legislators joining the Vedike would not amount to defection.

Another party spokesman, V S Ugrappa, also maintained that those joining the Vedike did not violate the anti-defection law.

Assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar, meanwhile, has said he would go through the petitions submitted against the three former ministers.

He told United News of India from his home at Srinivaspur in Kolar district that he had already instructed his staff to send him the petitions.

Earlier, party spokesman and Chief Minister J H Patel's political secretary K H Srinivas, who released copies of the petitions to newsmen in Bangalore, said the Supreme Court in a judgment had stated that the expression 'voluntarily given up his party' had a wider connotation than 'resignation' and that a person may voluntarily give up membership of a political party without formally tendering his resignation from the party.

Patel had stated in the petitions that in the absence of a formal resignation, an inference might be drawn from the conduct of the former ministers that they had voluntarily given up the membership of the party to which they belonged and the speaker had full and final powers to draw such inferences and act accordingly.

Srinivas said as per the law, the speaker would have to give notice to the former ministers, who have been named as respondents, seeking their explanation within seven days. He might also give them a personal hearing. He said action would be taken against four other Dal MLAs who had joined the Vedike after necessary documentary evidences were collected.

Referring to the challenge thrown by the Lok Shakti to the Dal to expel the former ministers for anti-party activities, Srinivas said if the party expelled them, they would retain their membership and "we will only be obliging them".

He said the speaker had the right to act in this regard as his jurisdiction was not restricted to the conduct of members within the House. He could take decisions even if the act of defection took place outside the floor of the assembly.

Tell us what you think of this report