Final hearing in SP rebel MLAs' case inconclusive

Lucknow, July 11 (UNI) The Final hearing in the case related to disqualification of five ruling Samajwadi Party MLAs, who had voted in favour of the BSP in the recently held Rajya Sabha and legislative council polls, remained inconclusive today and would continue tomorrow.

Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, while rejecting the plea of the defence counsel to frame issues and related evidences for the final hearing, said that there was no need of any such move.

Concluding his arguments, petitioners counsel Anupam Malhotra maintained that the three MLAs, who have filed their written statements have admitted indirectly that they had voluntarily left the party.

'' There was no need of any evidence as all the three MLAs have not outrightly denied that they have not voted for BSP as charged in the petition,'' the counsel, presenting his arguements on the statements of Kalyan Singh Dohre, Sunderlal and Ms Omvati, said.

However, defence counsel P N Gupta refuted the arguements of the petitioners' counsel, stating that the MLAs have in no way admitted that they have voted for BSP.

He further maintained that the petition should be rejected as 10th Schedule does not deal with the elections outside the house.

Other two MLAs -- Ratan Lal Ahirwar and Kamlesh Pathak -- were yet to submit their written statement on the petition.

At present, Ahirwar is lodged in Jhansi jail in connection with several criminal cases.

During the hearing, the respondents' counsel demanded the copy of the SP whip for the RS polls and documents to prove that these five MLAs had attended a BSP workers meet here on March 31.

The Speaker had served notices to five MLAs on June 27 on a petition filed by SP general secretary and state PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, alleging that these MLAs had voted in favour of BSP candidates in the recently concluded RS polls, in violation of party whip.

The petition also charged that these MLAs attended a BSP workers meeting at Ambedkar Maiden, on March 31 which was addressed by Ms Mayawati.

The RS elections, held on March 28, witnessed large-scale cross voting by the legislators.

The five rebel SP MLAs include Omvati Devi, Sunder Lal, Kamlesh Pathak, Kalyan Singh Dohre and Ratan Lal Ahirwar.

Earlier, the Speaker had disqualified assembly membership of five MLAs belonging to the Loktrantrik Bahujan Dal(LBD), who had switched over to the BSP on March 1. The disqualified LBD members are Jaiveer Singh, Surendra Vikram Singh, Dharampal, Ramji Shukla and Ramkrishna.

UNI MB NAB VD RS1838