Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs in the Raghubar Das Government Amar Kumar Bauri deposed before the Speaker court on Friday, while his colleague in the Cabinet Randhir Singh skipped citing health reasons.
Bauri during the proceeding was cross examined by the prosecution JVM and asked tough questions about the said merger of the Babulal Marandi headed party into the BJP on February 8, 2015, following the Assembly poll outcome.
“Amar Kumar Bauri said during the cross examination that he and his other five co-MlAs opted for the BJP because there was no internal democracy in the party and supported the merger of the JVM into the BJP. I countered his claims and asked whether he informed the Election Commission of India and JVM chief Babulal Marandi about the mergerIJ He replied in negative and said the Assembly Speaker was apprised a day after the merger,” said JVM’s lawyer RN Sahay after the hearing.
Notably, the ECI replying to a question asked under RTI has said that the apex election regulatory body has no clue about the said merger of the JVM into the BJP and it still recognises the latter as a separate regional political outfit of Jharkhand.
“When he was asked about not informing the Commission about the merger, he said that as per the decision taken the Speaker was informed as they knew in advance that the matter would come before him under the 10th schedule of the Constitution dealing with breakaway cases like this. I said, ‘it means you admitted to the guilt of defection as you were wary of the consequences,’” added the lawyer.
The six MlAs namely Amar Kumar Bauri, Randhir Singh, Ganesh Ganjhu, Alok Chaurasia, Navin Jaiswal and Janki Prasad Ydav after getting elected on the ticket of JVM during the Assembly polls joined the BJP on February 8, 2015. A day following the ‘merger’ the Assembly secretariat was informed about it.
An official of the Assembly present in the court during hearing said that the prosecution side tried unsuccessfully to press the RTI reply of the ECI. “The JVM lawyer told the court about this to which the defense side objected and said it should come with a petition. This may be done after the cross examination is completed,” he said.
RN Sahay said that under the Section-29 (A) of Representation of the People’s Act, 1951 the ECI is authorised to register or deregister any political party and any change in the status of any party should be passed on to it for proper action. “Nothing of this sort has been done here since they were aware that the Commission would ask who was the authority to take the merger call,” said Sahay. Next hearing of the case would take place on June 19.