BJP Lobs Raja Singh’s Quit Letter To Speaker
The Speaker is a respondent in an ongoing case in the Supreme Court over the delay in deciding on the disqualification of 10 legislators who switched loyalties from the BRS to the Congress.
Hyderabad:All eyes will be on Assembly Speaker G. Prasada Rao following the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership accepting the resignation by its Goshamahal MLA T. Raja Singh from the primary membership of the party.
The Speaker is a respondent in an ongoing case in the Supreme Court over the delay in deciding on the disqualification of 10 legislators who switched loyalties from the BRS to the Congress. The Speaker will now have to decide on the disqualification plea to be submitted by the BJP with regard to Raja Singh.
The very first reason cited in the 10th Schedule of the Constitution to determine the disqualification of a legislator is voluntarily giving up membership of a political party on whose ticket the member got elected. The BJP, which wanted to send a strong signal to its leaders against crossing the line of discipline, in all likelihood will inform the Speaker of the acceptance of Raja Singh’s resignation and press for his disqualification from the Assembly.
“Though we have not received any direction from the Central leadership on pressing for disqualification, we are of the strong view that he should not be spared. Any compromise at this stage would dilute the claims of the BJP being a disciplined party,” a veteran BJP leader pointed out.
“The Speaker, obviously, will not even look into the matter till the legislature wing of the BJP formally writes a letter seeking disqualification of Raja Singh,” he added.
Raja Singh, who apparently is fully aware of the legal position, had on June 30 dared then-BJP president G. Kishan Reddy to accept his resignation and inform the Speaker. The state leadership which was caught unawares initially tried to play safe by asking Raja Singh to submit his resignation to the Speaker if he was sincere about quitting the Assembly. After a few days, however, the party decided to accept his resignation from the primary membership.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court in ‘Ravi S. Naik vs Union Of India’ ruled that to define the voluntary giving up of membership, the member does not necessarily need to formally resign and it can be inferred from the member’s conduct as well. Then Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu had invoked this provision and disqualified Janata Dal (U) senior leader Sharad Yadav for openly criticising the party. But, about the same time, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla did not act on the YSRC’s plea to disqualify its then-MP K. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju despite his outbursts against party and its supremo Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“In Raja Singh’s case there will be no ambiguity. The Speaker also does not need to infer from the conduct, as the MLA voluntarily gave up his membership and the party has accepted the same,” said the BJP leader.
