In a major setback to the Congress in Haryana, Speaker Satbir Singh Kadian today disqualified six MLAs from the membership of the Assembly for violating the provisions of the anti-defection law. Coming at this juncture, the decision brightens the prospects of INLD candidates winning both Rajya Sabha seats for which elections are due on June 28. The six MLAs given the boot include Karan Singh Dalal (Palwal) and Jagjit Singh Sangwan (Charkhi Dadri) who had dissolved their respective parties to join the Congress and four Independents — Dev Raj Dewan (Sonepat), Ram Chander Bisla (Ballabhgarh), Jai Prakash Gupta (Karnal) and Bhim Sen Mehta (Indri).The Speaker is yet to issue notices to two other Independents — Mulla Ram (Narnaul) and Daryao Singh Rajoura (Jhajjar) — for allegedly crossing over to the Congress. A petition against two more MLAs — Uday Bhan (Pundri) and Tejveer — for allegedly defecting to the Congress is also pending with the Speaker.In his order on Dalal and Sangwan, Kadian said: ‘‘It is a classic case of political defection by the respondents to guard against which, the Constitution was amended by the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985.’’ The petition against the two was filed on December 31 last year by INLD MLA Jasbir Mallour. Dalal and Sangwan were elected on the tickets of the Republican Party of India and Nationalist Congress Party, respectively. In order to join the Congress, both of them first formed their own parties and then merged them with the Congress. Later, the Speaker said the two were given enough time to defend themselves and the evidence against the other four was irrefutable. ‘‘Dalal and Sangwan failed to prove the division in their parties. Since the split was not proved, their case is fit to be charged with the provisions of the anti-defection law,’’ he said.He confirmed that with the disqualification of the six members, the strength of the Assembly has been reduced to 80 from 86 and any candidate now needs 27 first preference votes to win the Rajya Sabha seat.In response to a question, he denied that there had been any sort of pressure on him to disqualify the MLAs. When asked about the hurry in which the cases of the four Independents were decided, Kadian said: ‘‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’’He said no Independent was entitled to join any political party and in the present case two of the MLAs, Dewan and Bisla, had not only issued statements about their joining the Congress, but had also attended the Congress Legislature Party meeting. Their signatures on the CLP attendance sheet were also produced, he said.
