Sharad Yadav, Ali Anwar seek month's time to reply to RS communication

JD(U)’s rebel Rajya Sabha members Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar on Monday sought a month’s time to reply to the House’s communication to them, seeking response to the party’s plea for their disqualification.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat had asked Yadav and Anwar to respond within a week, which ended Monday. The two MPs had said they were busy in political programmes and needed time to prepare their replies.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the Rajya Sabha secretary general, Anwar said any decision should not be taken in a hurry and they should be given “natural justice”.

“What is the hurry? We should be given an opportunity to explain ourselves. There should be a natural justice,” he said, and demanded that the matter be referred to the ethics committee of the House.

Anwar pointed out that the committee is yet to be constituted. He said they have sought one month time to reply to the Rajya Sabha’s communication to them.

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JD(U) general secretary Sanjay Jha accused the rebel members of resorting to delaying tactics to avoid their disqualification as MPs for alleged anti-party activities.

The party’s Rajya Sabha members on August 12 had removed Yadav, who opposed the party’s decision to ally with the BJP in Bihar, as their leader in the House and replaced him with R C P Singh.

It had also suspended its Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party for attending a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Differences between Bihar Chief Minister and party president Nitish Kumar, and Yadav surfaced after the former snapped ties with the Congress and the RJD, and allied with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar in July.

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