SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, May 15: It appears to be a war of nerves between the Jharkhand Assembly Speaker and the BJP, the main Opposition party, over the leader of Opposition.
Jharkhand State BJP president Deepak Prakash today said that he had not received any letter from the Assembly secretary regarding the Speaker’s direction to recommend an MLA’s name, who could be recognized as leader of Opposition.
“Let the Assembly secretariat show who had received the letter. There is no address mentioned in the said letter,” Prakash, also a Rajya Sabha member, asserted.
“I came to know about it following the hearing of a PIL by the Jharkhand High court on May 11,” he told this writer.
Notably, Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan had informed the Jharkhand High Court during the last hearing that Speaker Rabindranath Mahto has asked the BJP, the main Opposition party in the Jharkhand assembly, several times to recommend one of its MLAs to be the leader of Opposition. “Instead, it had proposed the name of Babulal Marandi, who is facing anti-defection proceedings under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, and thus so far, not a member of the BJP,” he pointed out.
The high court is set to take up the issue again on May 16.
Prakash, quoting the Assembly Secretary’s letter said that the Speaker had asked us to recommend an MLA’s name for the purpose of appointment of Lokayukta with a rider that the said MLA should be among the elected members notified by the Election Commission on December 26 2019 following the Assembly elections.
The rider implied that the BJP will not be able to send Babulal Marandi as he was a member of the JVM on December 26 2019.
‘We too want to go by the Election Commission’s notification, but not what the Speaker suggested to please his party (JMM) bosses,” he maintained.
“Everybody knows that Marandi merged his party with the BJP on February 17, 2020 throwing out two MLAs-Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey. Thereafter, the Election Commission ahead of the Rajya Sabha election on June 19 2020 declared Marandi as a BJP MLA and other two MLAs, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, as Independents.
Incidentally, the Assembly secretariat had sent their names as MLAs of the JVM.
“So, when the EC has endorsed the JVM merger with the BJP and Marandi as a BJP MLA, we will abide by the EC list sent in 2020. We are firm on sending Marandi’s name for the BJP leader in the House and pave the path for appointments in various statutory bodies,” he said.
The Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha, on the other hand, said the Speaker after adopting a procedure to resolve this constitutional deadlock sent a letter to the BJP state president on 18.10.2022. Again, a reminder was sent on 13.2.23.
“The Speaker recognized the BJP as the main Opposition party in the State assembly on April 20 2022. But in the absence of a leader of the Opposition being appointed who shall be deemed to be the leader of the single largest group has not to be decided by the assembly,” the Assembly Secretary pointed out.
The issue over the leader of Opposition has hogged the limelight as 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 leader of Opposition.
Notably, the issue of deciding the validity of Babulal Marandi’s membership under the anti-defection law has been pending in the Speaker’s tribunal for the last three years. The Speaker had concluded anti-defection proceedings against Marandi in August last year and reserved the judgment amid political uncertainty following the Election Commission of India’s ostensible recommendation for Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s disqualification as an assembly member.
The assembly secretariat has said that there are other cases under anti-defection too and the substance of all these cases is the same. So, the Speaker is taking every fact into account before reaching a final conclusion,” it added.
Under the Act, the Lokayukta shall be appointed after consultation with the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court, Ranchi and the Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly or if there be no such leader a person elected in this behalf by the Members of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly in such manner as the Speaker may direct.
The Leader of the single largest group in opposition of the Government in the Legislative Assembly shall be deemed to be the Leader of Opposition where the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly has not been recognised as such for appointing Chairman and members of the State Information Commission.
Abhay Mishra, counsel for one of the petitioners, Raj Kumar, said the high court hearing a batch of petitions, will decide two issues. First, whether after the information given by the largest opposition party regarding its leader in the House can the Speaker delay to take a call on it indefinitely on the grounds of pending proceedings under the Anti-defection law.
Second, whether the high court can direct the Speaker to recognise the leader of Opposition in terms of the recommendation made by the largest opposition party in the House, he added.
