While Singh continues to attack the party, he has refused to resign
from his Rajya Sabha membership. The same is true for Jaya Prada, a Lok Sabha MP from Rampur.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) may have expelled disgruntled veteran Amar Singh and his associate Jaya Prada for their outbursts, but that hasn’t quelled the party’s worries.
While Singh continues to attack the party, he has refused to resign
from his Rajya Sabha membership. The same is true for Jaya Prada, a Lok Sabha MP from Rampur. The SP is now busy seeking legal opinion on how the rebel parliamentarians can be expelled from either House.
The party also fears that the expelled leaders may defy the party line on issues like women’s reservation and trifurcation of Uttar Pradesh during the coming session of parliament.
While the party is exploring options of getting rid of the dissidents, it’s also finding hard to react to Singh’s latest challenge: “I dare the SP to expel Jaya Bachchan.” The expelled leader had said this while reacting to SP spokesperson Mohan Singh’s remark that the party wasn’t acting against Bachchan, another party MP in the Rajya Sabha, since she had not indulged in any “anti-party” activity.
On her part, while Bachchan, who calls Amar her brother, has expressed her “disappointment” over the leader’s expulsion. She has, however, expressed her desire to finish her term as a Rajya Sabha MP (about six months) “gracefully”. The actor-MP has maintained that she would resign from the party only if SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav asks her “upfront” to do so.
Despite Bachchan’s extension of support to Amar Singh, SP spokesperson Mohan Singh asserted, “Jaya Bachchan is a Samajwadi MP. Where is the question of asking her to quit? She has not spoken against the party. She didn’t indulge in anti-party activities.”
The spokesperson confirmed that the party was “studying all options” to find a way to oust Amar Singh and Jaya Prada from their parliamentary membership. SP may refer to a 2008 ruling given by then speaker Somnath Chatterjee under which three Bahujan Samaj Party Lok Sabha members — Bhalchand Yadav, Ramakant Yadav and Mohammad Shahid Akhlaq — were disqualified.
The three MPs had openly criticised party chief Mayawati in poll rallies and spoken favourably of rival SP.
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