lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has accepted a request from the JD(U) to drop proceedings against its three MPs facing anti-defection charges.
This has come as a reprieve for party MPs Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘lalan’, Sushil Singh and Mangni lal Mandal against whom their party had earlier moved a petition seeking their disqualification from the lower House of Parliament. The matter was referred to the privileges committee.
In a letter to JD(U) Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Ranjan Prasad Yadav, joint secretary, lok Sabha Secretariat, VR Ramesh informed him that the Speaker has “acceded to your request to withdraw the petition filed by you under 10th schedule of the Constitution (Anti-defection law) against Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘lalan’, Sushil Singh and Mangni lal Mandal.”
Yadav had written the letter to the Speaker on June 22 requesting for withdrawing the earlier petition filed by JD(U) seeking the disqualification of three MPs on the charges of anti-party activities.
The JD (U)’s decision came against the backdrop of changed political equations after it parted ways with BJP-led NDA. Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Sushil Kumar Singh have buried the hatchet with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, while Mandal remains an adversary. Mandal is an influential OBC leader from North Bihar — a stronghold of BJP.