Nitish looks set to oust Sharad Yadav from RS

NEW DELHI: The JD(U) war is getting knottier, with the official faction led by chief minister Nitish Kumar set to invoke Rajya Sabha rules to demand rebel party leader Sharad Yadav’s disqualification from the House.

But the Yadav faction has also decided to seek the disqualification of the MPs of the Kumar faction, quoting the same Schedule 10 of the Rules of Procedure and Business of the Rajya Sabha, as per which a member can be disqualified if he voluntarily gives up the membership of the party by which he got elected.

“Yadav has defied the party’s official line by attending RJD leader Lalu Prasad’s rally. He had been specifically instructed to not attend the rally. His decision amounts to an ‘anti-party activity’. We will be writing to Rajya Sabha chairman (and Vice-President) M Venkiah Naidu to demand Sharad YAdav’s disqualification,” party general secretary K C Tyagi told HT.

Ostensibly, the official faction has taken to this route (Schedule 10) to bring about the speedy disqualification of Yadav as a MP, as the conventional process of expelling him would have allowed him to continue as an unattached member of Parliament’s Upper House.

“For Schedule 10 to be invoked, the party will need to furnish documentary evidence to establish that a member has been involved in anti-party activity. If the Rajya Sabha Chairman is satisfied with the evidence furnished, such a member can be disqualified,” a senior Rajya Sabha official said.

The rebel faction argues that Kumar, in deciding to dump the “Mahagathbandhan” to align with BJP, had violated the earlier decisions of the party’s national council.

“The MPs belonging to the official faction are liable to lose their membership under Schedule 10 of the Rules of procedure,” said Javed Raza, general secretary of the Yadav faction. PATNA: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday slammed the ruling BJP government for ignoring the people’s wish and exhorted the opposition parties to stand against the forces, which is out to dismantle the basic characters of the country—unity, brotherhood and tolerance.

In an audio message that was played at the rally, she also hit out at PM Narendra Modi for his remark that those pursuing politics of the opposition had turned irrelevant, saying, “the fact remains that those ignoring the truth would not remain relevant for long”.

Sonia, whose absence at the rally was attributed to her poor health and the sickness of Priyanka Gandhi, accused the BJP of disrespecting the popular mandate in Bihar to cover up its “corrupt acts” and said it was not the betrayal of trust of the people of Bihar but of the whole nation.

Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, in his text message read out by state Congress president Ashok Choudhary, hoped that the rally would apprise the people about corrupt deals and nefarious acts being indulged in by the ruling coalition.

West Bengal CM and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee also wondered whether BJP had given membership to God and will Hindus also have to take a certificate from it to authenticate their religious status now.

She said, “BJP is now dictating what food we should eat, what we should wear and whom we should romance-whatever that they think is correct. At this rate, we will have to take a certificate from it whom to worship, or which religion we belong,” she said. “This attitude cannot be tolerated. India is a pluralistic country and such parochial thinking is a big threat for the nation.”

Meanwhile, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav said the PM should clarify as how many youths have been left jobless after the demonetisation and GST implementation in the country.