Sounding dejected after the ruling of the Speaker court dismissing its petition that had sought disqualification of six of its former MLAs as Assembly members, the JVM on Thursday reiterated that the party would not let the issue die.
Addressing a press conference party general secretary Bandhu Tirkey flanked by advocate RN Sahay, who had argued the case before the Tribunal examining at the anti-defection case, said that the Election Commission had responded in negative about the said merger well before. “There is an RTI reply from the Commission in 2016 in which it had said that no application for merging the JVM into any other party has been received at its office. Also, the JVM over the years has been contesting bye elections on the symbol allotted to it—the comb. Keeping all these into mind the ruling given by the Speaker is unconstitutional and wrong thus we would be approaching to the Commission and High Court against it,†he said.
Tirkey went on adding that any merger of party is to be approved by the ECI which has to be backed by at least 2/3 members of any party switching to any other. “This condition has not been met in this case. Out of 57 members of the party’s central committee only two had decided to switch their loyalties and thus they have violated the provisions of the anti-defection law,†added he.
To mark a protest against Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon headed Tribunal’s judgment declaring merger of the six MLAs into the BJP as legitimate, the party burnt effigies and held a march up to the Albert Ekka chowk.
