Bihar Assembly Speaker on Saturday cancelled membership of four rebel JD(U) MLAs, who had cross-voted during Rajya Sabha bypolls. Though 18 JD(U) MLAs had cross-voted during the RS polls in which all three JD(U) candidates had eventually managed to win with RJD support, JD(U) had complained to the Speaker about four MLAs - Gyanendra Singh Gyanu (Barh, Patna), Niraj Kumar Singh (Chhatapur, Supaul), Ravindra Rai (Mahua, Vaishali) and Rahul Sharma (Ghoshi, Jehanabad). As per the Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary's ruling, the four MLAs not only lost their membership, they will not be "treated as an ex-MLA" and nor will be "entitled to benefits of a former MLA". The four MLAs said as cross-voting did not amount to a violation of the 10th Schedule provisions, they would move Patna High Court. Bihar Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi said:"I have nothing to say about the Speaker's ruling". Gyanendra Singh Gyanu said: "We are not at all surprised at this decision and know who is behind this. This is Tughlaqi and Naxali order. We will move to court and go to people's court to teach him (Nitish) a lesson". Ravindra Rai and Niraj Kumar Singechoed similar sentiments. These MLAs, however, reposed faith in Jeetan Ram Manjhi's leadership and said next Assembly poll should be fought under Manjhi's leadership. These MLAs have not been suspended from JD (U) yet.
