RANCHI: In what could be a blow to Jharkhand BJP, the state legislative assembly speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto on Tuesday afternoon concluded the hearing into the defection case against BJP’s legislative party leader Babulal Marandi and fixed the date of pronouncing his judgement on September 1.
While the ruling Mahagathbandhan in the state moved its MLAs to a resort in Raipur in a chartered flight from here, Mahto concluded the hearing of the case, which had been initiated based on complaints by two present and two former MLAs in February 2020.
Marandi’s counsel R N Sahay said: “The court of the speaker concluded the proceedings without any argument and without hearing the witnesses and fixed the date of judgement without following the rules by ignoring the provisions of the 10th schedule of the Constitution.”
Sahay, however, claimed that they would not presume anything and wait for the judgement to be delivered on Thursday before charting their next legal course.
Marandi, the first chief minister of Jharkhand, had merged his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha – Prajantantrik with the BJP in 2020, months after the Hemant Soren-led government took oath of office. While the Election Commission had upheld the merger as valid, the then JVM-P legislative party leader Pradeep Yadav had filed a defection case against him in the speaker’s court along with JVM-P MLA Bandhu Tirkey, Congress MLA Dipika Pandey Singh and former Rajdhanwar MLA Raj Kumar Yadav.
Though Marandi is still a JVM-P MLA in the House, he was unanimously elected the BJP legislative party leader. Over the next few sessions, the BJP MLAs had disrupted the House proceedings demanding a speedy disposal of the case. In a tweet, Godda’s BJP MP Nishikant Dubey claimed that the speaker is all set to disqualify Marandi as a legislator.
While the ruling Mahagathbandhan in the state moved its MLAs to a resort in Raipur in a chartered flight from here, Mahto concluded the hearing of the case, which had been initiated based on complaints by two present and two former MLAs in February 2020.
Marandi’s counsel R N Sahay said: “The court of the speaker concluded the proceedings without any argument and without hearing the witnesses and fixed the date of judgement without following the rules by ignoring the provisions of the 10th schedule of the Constitution.”
Sahay, however, claimed that they would not presume anything and wait for the judgement to be delivered on Thursday before charting their next legal course.
Marandi, the first chief minister of Jharkhand, had merged his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha – Prajantantrik with the BJP in 2020, months after the Hemant Soren-led government took oath of office. While the Election Commission had upheld the merger as valid, the then JVM-P legislative party leader Pradeep Yadav had filed a defection case against him in the speaker’s court along with JVM-P MLA Bandhu Tirkey, Congress MLA Dipika Pandey Singh and former Rajdhanwar MLA Raj Kumar Yadav.
Though Marandi is still a JVM-P MLA in the House, he was unanimously elected the BJP legislative party leader. Over the next few sessions, the BJP MLAs had disrupted the House proceedings demanding a speedy disposal of the case. In a tweet, Godda’s BJP MP Nishikant Dubey claimed that the speaker is all set to disqualify Marandi as a legislator.