The Jharkhand Assembly on Thursday blamed BJP for delay in the appointment of leader of Opposition in State for more than three years. State Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan, appearing on behalf of the Assembly, pleaded that Speaker Rabindranath Mahto has asked the main Opposition party in the Jharkhand assembly which is BJP to recommend one of its MLAs for the post of leader of Opposition. However, every time BJP proposed the name of Babulal Marandi, who is facing anti-defection proceedings under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution and as per provisions, Marandi’s membership is doubtful.

The AG also informed the Court that the Speaker, having reserved his verdict on Marandi, will hear anti-defection proceedings against two other JVM MLAs, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, on May 18. Once the hearing is complete the Court will pronounce the verdict  in all cases.

Marandi merged his party JVM (P) with the BJP on February 17, 2020 after ousting his two other party legislators, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, who claimed that they represent the real JVM (P) and they later merged the party with the Congress.

The JVM was a three-member legislative body after the last Assembly election including Babulal Marandi, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey.

The BJP nominated Marandi as its legislature party leader and petitioned the speaker to grant him Leader of Opposition status. However, the speaker initiated proceedings under the anti-defection law on his own.

When Marandi challenged the speaker’s powers to initiate proceedings on his own in Jharkhand high court, the speaker received five complaints that sought Marandi’s disqualification on the ground that the JVM (P) merger with BJ was illegal. The complaints were filed by former CPI (ML) legislator, Rajkumar Yadav, two sacked JVM(P) legislators, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, Congress legislator, Deepika Pandey, and JMM legislator Bhushan Tirkey.

Abhay Mishra, counsel for one of the petitioners, Raj Kumar, argued that the Speaker cannot keep the issue of the leader of Opposition pending if the proceedings under the Tenth Schedule drag on indefinitely.

According to Mishra, hearing a batch of petitions, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra fixed May 16 to decide two issues.

The high court is hearing a batch of cases, where a common question involved is that the Chairman of different statutory bodies like State Information Commission, Lokayukta, State Human Right Commission, etc. are not being appointed by the State Government for the last three years in absence of a leader of Opposition.