Acting on the pleas made by the chief whips of both Congress and BJP, Indira Hridayesh and Madan Kaushik, respectively, the Speaker has served notice to Congress MlA Rekha Arya and BJP MlA Bhim lal Arya while asking the duo to submit their replies by June 2.
The BJP leaders apprehend that the Speaker’s move would debar Rekha Arya from voting in the upcoming Rajya Sabha election slated for June 11 while it would help Bhim lal Arya to vote for the Congress candidate.
Mention-worthy, the two MlAs from the rival parties had defied their respective party’s whip as both cross-voted during the May 10 floor test.
The story of Bhim lal is an interesting one. Since the time he was elected Congress brass considered him as fairly vulnerable for poaching. The then CM Vijay Bahuguna even made advances to poach him to Congress way back in 2012. But the plan did not fructify as the BJP MlAs gheraoed Arya's house, smelling that he had his one foot set forward to switch to the Congress.
An astute leader as he was, Harish Rawat used to keep his doors open to humour him into doing what his predecessor had failed to goad him to do. The sulking saffron MlA swallowed the bait with alacrity as he started speaking of Rawat in glowing terms at public forums. Thinking that things were nearing the point when he should act, wily Rawat asked Arya to visit the State Congress headquarters. Showing his infinite flexibility in crawling when asked to bend backwards, he shed his backbone while stooping to clean the shoes of Harish Rawat when they visited a temple together. When the media quizzed him he made no bones about it.
A red-faced BJP suspended him by way of disciplinary action. However, the MlA was unfazed. He rather dared the party to expel him. But the BJP stopped short of doing it for reasons best known to it. He defied the party whip on March 18 as he chose to abstain from the House when the party was insisting on division of vote on the State Budget to topple the Harish Rawat Government.
However, the Speaker refused to act on the BJP plea and cleared the decks for the rebel saffron lawmaker to cross-vote during the Supreme Court- dictated floor test. The BJP left no stone unturned to intimidate him into falling in line. The whip issued by the party ahead of the May 10 floor test was pasted on his house by the leaders in the presence of the media.
But Arya was not one to cower. He cross-voted for the Congress during the crucial floor test.
Rekha Arya's story is no less colourful. She had switched to Congress from the BJP after she was denied Assembly election ticket in 2012. The Congress helped her fulfil her dream as she was given the party ticket to contest from Someshwar as by-election was held following the resignation of the BJP MlA Ajay Tamta after his election to the lok Sabha from Almora during the general election-2014. Rekha Arya was known as close to the former CM Bhagat Singh Koshyari. There are reasons to believe that she switched sides again ahead of the momentous floor test on being beseeched by her mentor in the BJP. She cross-voted, the only instance of such from the Congress camp.