Raghubansh terms disqualification of MLAs as unconstitutional

Former Union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh, whose party RJD is supporting JD(U) ministry in Bihar, today termed disqualification of four legislators as "unconstitutional" and assailed Speaker for "lowering dignity of Chair" by announcing such order.
"The disqualification of four MLAs has been one-sided and against the spirit of Constitution," Singh, who is RJD national vice president, told PTI.
He slammed Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary for even not recognising them as ex-MLAs.
"It's beyond the power of the Speaker to deny the MLAs privilege of ex-MLAs mandated by laws," he said and condemned the Speaker for "lowering dignity of the Chair".

Four rebel JD(U) MLAs - Gyanendra Singh Gyanoo (Barh), Neeraj Singh Babloo (Chhatapur), Ravindra Rai (Mahua) and Rahul Sharma (Ghosi) - were disqualified on Saturday last.
Raghubansh Singh, who served as Union minister in both UPA I and UPA II from RJD quota, is one of the key leaders summoned by party president Lalu Prasad to discuss future alliance in Delhi on Thursday.

He, however, took a tough stance on the alliance for crucial Assembly polls in Bihar next year.
"RJD will be in the role of big brother in the polls," he said, hinting dominance of Lalu and his party in the anti-BJP alliance of Congress, JD(U) and RJD.

"Nitish Kumar's party cannot claim as theirs seats they had won in 2010 in partnership with BJP... The formula for seat sharing should be (based on) number of votes received by parties in the recent Lok Sabha election," he said.
"These seats (in the present Assembly) cannot be recognised as seats of JD(U) as they had won them in partnership with BJP then. Now, they would contest against BJP," Singh, former Union Rural Development minister, said.
JD(U) had performed poorly in the Lok Sabha elections winning only two seats out of a total of 40. On more than half of the seats, its nominees had forfeited deposits.

RJD had managed to win four seats and helped Congress and NCP win two and one seats respectively.
In most of the 31 seats where BJP and its allies LJP and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) had won, Lalu Prasad's party candidate came second with handsome number of votes.
In 2010 Assembly election, JD(U) had won 117 seats in the 243-member Bihar House while the RJD had managed to bag only 22.