Congress, RJD seek disqualification of defectors from Bihar Assembly

Congress and RJD seek disqualification of defected MLAs in Bihar, accusing BJP of poaching and misuse of power.

Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh on Wednesday met Assembly Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav seeking the disqualification of MLAs who have defected from the party.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal has also said that it would seek disqualification of those who had defected.

On February 27, Congress legislators Murari Prasad Gautam and Siddharth Saurabh, along with RJD MLA Sangita Kumari, had switched sides to sit with the NDA block inside the State Assembly. Earlier, when the newly formed NDA government was seeking the trust vote on February 12, three RJD MLAs — Chetan Anand, Neelam Devi and Prahlad Yadav — had switched sides to vote in favour of the NDA and sat in the Treasury Benches.

“The BJP is misusing its power to offer inducements to the MLAs or issue threats through agencies like the CBI and the ED. We condemn the poaching of our MLAs, of whom Murari Prasad Gautam, till recently, was a Minister,” Mr. Singh told journalists after he led a delegation of party legislators to meet the Speaker. Mr. Gautam had been the Panchayati Raj Minister in the previous mahagathbandhan government, which comprised the RJD, the JD(U), the Congress and three Left parties.

Also Read | Three mahagathbandhan MLAs shift to NDA side in Bihar Assembly

“The conduct of the two MLAs was tantamount to giving up the membership of their party and invite anti-defection law. If the Speaker will not take any decision on this, the party may go to court,” Mr. Singh added.

Mr Singh said, “The Speaker said that he would look into our representation and study it to take a decision on this as per the rules.”