The three—Jaiveer Singh, Surendra Vikram and Dharam Pal Singh, along with another MLA Ramji Shukla—were planning to rebel against the rebellion. BSP legislature party leader S.P. Maurya claimed many more of the 40 MLAs were poised to "revert back". Perhaps this forced Speaker Pandey’s hand. By Wednesday night, he said the rebels would henceforth function...
How Many You Have... In The Well?
Nitrala Tripathi
The long-awaited Allahabad HC verdict on the split of 40 BSP MLAs finally came on February 28—and it wasn’t such a bad thing for the Samajwadi Party. The court basically suggested that the split was dubious but left it to the Speaker to take the final decision. The SP promptly called a trust vote the same day and won it—with the BSP rebels defying a party whip and voting in favour of it. But by next morning (Wednesday), the script got complicated: three ministers from this group resigned. That’s when Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, a nominee of CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, showed his hand. He virtually recognised the rebel BSP MLAs as a bloc, even hinting at action under the anti-defection law "against the deserters".
The long-awaited Allahabad HC verdict on the split of 40 BSP MLAs finally came on February 28—and it wasn’t such a bad thing for the Samajwadi Party. The court basically suggested that the split was dubious but left it to the Speaker to take the final decision. The SP promptly called a trust vote the same day and won it—with the BSP rebels defying a party whip and voting in favour of it. But by next morning (Wednesday), the script got complicated: three ministers from this group resigned. That’s when Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, a nominee of CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, showed his hand. He virtually recognised the rebel BSP MLAs as a bloc, even hinting at action under the anti-defection law "against the deserters".
