4 MLAs might be disqualified;speaker to hear BSP MLAs' case

Lucknow, Mar 1 (UNI) After day-long hectic political developments, Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey tonight said the hearing in the case of 40 BSP MLAs' defection would begin soon, but maintained that as an interim arrangement, the members of the Loktantrik Bahujan Dal could share seats with the treasury benches.

The Speaker, however, was very critical about the meeting of four rebel MLAs with the Governor and said they might attract disqualification under para 6 of the Tenth schedule.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Pandey said the four MLAs including Jaiveer Singh, Surendra Vikram Singh (ministers), Ramji Shukla and Dharam Pal Singh -- who expressed a written willingness to rejoin the BSP before the UP Governor T V Rajeswar -- might be disqualified from the Assembly, ''as yesterday's Allahabad High Court order in the rebel MLA case had recognised the 37-member group as Loktantrik Bahujan Dal (LBD).'' The Allahabad High Court has reinstated the old party LBD formed by the rebel MLAs after defecting from the BSP and directed the speaker to direct where these MLAs would sit in the state assembly. Mr Pandey directed that as an interim arrangement, while they would be allowed to sit with the Treasury benches, he would make a final decision on their identity as a separate group soon.

Mr Pandey also said that he will start hearing the case pertaining to the recognition, as a separate group of the 37 MLAs, remanded back to him by the three judge larger bench of the High Court yesterday.

Meanwhile, the speaker was in a fix over the anti-defection law, as after the amendment to the constitution in 2003, para 3 of the 10th schedule which related to a split had been deleted with effect from January, 2004.

Now the hearing is expected to be done under the old provisions of the anti-defection law.

Sources claimed that the hearing could be started only after a week, as notices have to be served to all the concerned parties which will take some time.

UNI MB NAB ARS MA KN2305