Former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav is struggling to retain the party’s symbol under him and maintain his Rajya Sabha seat by repeatedly applying to the Election Commission of India (ECI) but party chief Nitish Kumar’s close aide RCP Singh said Yadav should resign from the Parliament instead of inviting humiliation. Singh has replaced Yadav as leader of the JD(U) in Rajya Sabha.
Saying that Yadav was making tactical moves before the ECI only to save his membership of the Parliament, Singh said the ECI has twice rejected his pleas still he is making a third attempt and seeking time to furnish supportive documents. The JD(U) has already moved to the Rajya Sabha chairman for disqualification of Yadav on ground that he violated the legalities of the anti defection law and quit the party on his own.
launching a vitriolic attack on Yadav, JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar said, “Sharad has a hidden agenda behind getting closer to RJD chief lalu Prasad. By becoming the political uncle of Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, he is eyeing on the leadership of the RJD. Once lalu and his sons are jailed he will become custodian of the RJD and the family’s properties. He also wants to establish his son and son-in-law in politics.”
The former bureaucrat and JD(U) leader in Rajya Sabha Singh said the only purpose of keeping his application pending in the ECI is to escape disqualification. He said Yadav first applied to the ECI staking claim on JD(U) on August 25 but submitted no documentary evidence and his petition was rejected by the ECI on September 12 because neither the petition was signed nor any evidence in support of his claim had been enclosed. Again Yadav applied to the ECI on September 14 seeking one month time to submit the evidence. But the ECI once again trashed it asking him to apply only with evidence. Now, Yadav is planning to move the ECI once again.
Yadav loyalist Javed Raza retaliated by saying that Sharad Yadav is a tall leader of the country and he did not need a Parliament membership to remain in politics. “He has already resigned from Parliament twice,” said Raza and added that Singh was a bureaucrat and political novice.
JD(U) spokesman Kumar said it was right that Yadav resigned his Parliament seat in order to fight the corruption but what was happening now. “Today he is not only standing with but also shielding lalu Prasad who is accused in a series of corruption cases,” he alleged. The JD(U) is quite hopeful that Yadav would lose his Rajya Sabha membership even as five years of its term still remaining. The party has pleaded that Yadav attended the rally called by RJD despite a warning by JD(U) secretary general KC Tyagi. ‘He has and is indulging in anti-party activities,” he added.