Sharad Yadav’s claim to JD(U)'s 'arrow' symbol misses the mark, EC rejects application

Amid the tussle with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Sharad Yadav faction had laid claim to the JD(U)’s party symbol the and approached the Election Commission.  However, their tussle for the ‘arrow’ doesn’t look very hopeful.  

On Tuesday, sources told DNA that the ECI has sent communication to the Sharad Yadav camp in response to their application stating that that they hadn’t provided documents to back up their claim of representing Janata Dal (United).The ECI source added that due to the lack of documents, the body had refused to take cognisance of the Yadav camp’s claim and disposed their application.

On Friday, Nitish Kumar’s team had submitted affidavits of an ‘overwhelming’ number of party’s elected members and office-bearers in support of the Bihar CM’s claim, urging the EC to reject the Yadav faction’s claim.

JD(U) leaders, including its parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha R C P Singh and secretary general K C Tyagi, urged the EC to take an early decision in the matter.

Tyagi accused the Yadav faction of deliberately trying to drag the matter to the commission, so as to use it as a "pretext" to ask the Rajya Sabha chairperson not to act on the JD(U)'s application to disqualify the rebel leader from the House for his "anti-party" activities.

"We have submitted the affidavits of all the 71 party MLAs, all the 30 MLCs, both the Lok Sabha members and seven of the 10 Rajya Sabha members of the party, supporting the leadership of Nitish Kumar," Tyagi said.

Of the 10 JD(U) members in the Upper House of Parliament, M P Veerendra Kumar has been maintaining a distance from both the Kumar and Yadav factions, while Ali Anwar Ansari has sided with Yadav.

Tyagi told PTI that the affidavits also included those of the 16 central office-bearers of the party out of 20, 16 state presidents and 143 national council members out of 180.

"Almost all the elected members and an overwhelming majority of office-bearers are with us. Sharad Yadav or those supporting his claim that he represents the real JD(U) have no locus standi. They are merely some individuals," he said.

Tyagi added that Yadav had urged the Rajya Sabha chairman to defer the decision on the JD(U)'s application to annul his membership because the EC was yet to take a decision as to which of the rival factions represented the "real" party.

He said while the Yadav faction was yet to furnish any proof that it represented the "real" JD(U), they had submitted "evidence" of their support to the poll watchdog.

The RS secretariat has also asked rebel MPs, Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar, to respond within a week to their party's petition that they be disqualified from the House for their "anti-party" activities.

After Yadav turned against party president Nitish Kumar's decision to ally with the BJP and attended an opposition rally in Patna, the JD(U) had urged Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu to disqualify him and Ansari, who too had joined Yadav.

JD(U) general secretary Sanjay Jha said there was precedent of a member being disqualified from the Rajya Sabha after he attended opposition's events and cited the example of Jai Narain Prasad Nishad, a BJP member who had drifted toward the RJD.

"We have given documentary and other evidence of both the leaders' anti-party activities. That they have defied the party leadership and gone to the Election Commission seeking its symbol, is also an anti-party activity," he said.

With inputs from agencies