Sharad Yadav gets 10 days to appear before Venkaiah Naidu, offer defence Regarding Disqualification from Rajya Sabha.
Mr. Naidu had earlier asked Yadav to appear before him in person on October 30 with regard to the petition filed by Singh seeking his disqualification on account of defection. Sources said Yadav may take a lawyer along to buttress his arguments at the final hearing.
Doing some plain talk, Rajya Sabha Secretariat has given ten days extension to rebel JDU leader Sharad Yadav to explain his stand over JDU’s disqualification notice against him, stating “no further extension will be given in the case.”
Though Yadav had already submitted a 200-page reply, including annexures, to him, Naidu had sought his personal appearance to “afford” him “an opportunity to represent” his case and hear him in person “before taking a decision in the matter”.
Yadav wrote to the Secretariat on October 23 seeking eight weeks time to appear before it citing his travel in next few weeks for upcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
He requested the Rajya Sabha Chairman to “kindly postpone” his appearance in person before him in this context for the Mentioned period.
In reply, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on October 24 stated that the Chairman considered his request and directed that Yadav should appear before him before November 8 to represent his case.
Sources said that some senior Congress leaders had in private suggested to the Chairman that he refer the complaint to the Committee on Ethics for a preliminary inquiry, but Naidu had remained non-committal. The Chairman seemed set to decide it straightaway on the basis of the material placed before him and final arguments. The committee route had been bypassed because it had been felt that there was nothing to investigate as in a case of corruption or unethical conduct. The JD(U) rift was public and Yadav’s action had to be weighed in light of relevant rules.
Yadav, who claims his faction of the party to be the “real JDU” has organised a number of programmes against the BJP and also attended an anti-BJP rally organised by RJD chief Lalu Prasad in Patna.
JDU general secretary KC Tyagi, however, argues that with “more than 90 per cent party leaders are with Nitish Kumar,” Yadav’s claim has “no basis” and is confident that his disqualification will be just a matter of time.
