Speaker's role smacks of conspiracy, says Cong

New Delhi, Sep 13 (UNI) The Congress today said while Jharkhand Speaker Inder Namdhari Singh was within his rights to issue notice to three of the four Independents who quit as Ministers, the manner in which he had fixed their hearing a day before the trial of strength in the Assembly ''smacked of a conspiracy.'' ''The three MLAs will file their replies. However, the matter is sub judice and we will await further development,'' Congress Spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi said briefing media persons here.

Distancing the party from the political developments in Jharkhand,the Congress today said that the Arjun Munda Government would fall under the weight of its own contradictions. "We have not planned anything," he added.

"It is the BJP-led Government's own internal bickerings that has led to the political crisis in the State. The Congress has played no role there," the Congress Spokesman said reacting to senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu's comment that the Congress wanted to rule the state by proxy.

Mr Chaturvedi charged that it was the BJP which had destablised the Government in Bihar and engineered mass defections in Uttar Pradesh during the then NDA regime.

UNI YS VD KN1812