Turncoat Simon resigns from assembly

RANCHI: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA Simon Marandi, who recently left the tribal party and joined BJP, on Wednesday became the ninth legislator to tender his resignation from the membership of the legislative assembly. Marandi appeared personally before speaker Shashank Shekhar Bhokta to tender his resignation minutes before the speaker’s court was about to pronounce its judgment in the defection case registered and heard against Marandi on a complaint filed by JMM.
Irked over JMM’s decision about ticket distribution ahead of the Lok Sabha general elections, Marandi had openly criticized the party. He was eyeing a ticket for his son Dinesh Williams Marandi from the Rajmahal parliamentary constituency. Marandi’s wish was not granted and he was accused of anti-party activities. Earlier a minister in the Hemant Soren cabinet, he was sacked in May and a complaint was filed with the Speaker after he formally joined BJP.
Having completed hearing in the matter Bhokta accepted Marandi’s resignation instead of disqualifying him under relevant provisions of Schedule 10 of the Constitution that deals with disqualification of members on ground of defection.
In a similar process, Bhokta had on August 25 allowed and accepted resignations of five JVM (P) MLAs who had joined BJP. Bhokta said that since the maximum quantum of punishment under the defection law is limited to disqualification of membership, he found it suitable to accept the resignations. “I had directed the MLAs to appear personally and resign. Once they did that, I found it apt to accept their resignations,” he said.
Even as Jharkhand is all set for elections, the strength of the assembly has been decreasing by the day. The 81-member house has now been reduced to 71. Apart from Marandi and the five JVM (P) MLAs, JMM turncoats Hemlal Murmu and Bidyut Baran Mahato and Congress MLA Chandrashekhar Dubey had tendered resignation ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and BJP’s Laxman Gilua got elected to the Lower House and lost membership of the assembly.
The instability of the Jharkhand assembly was similar ahead of the 2009 assembly elections. At that time, 22 BJP legislators had tendered resignations demanding immediate polls as the state was under President’s Rule, bringing the effective strength of 81-member House to 41. The situation had emerged as apart from the mass resignation, five MLAs — Arjun Munda, Karia Munda, P N Singh (all BJP), Madhu Koda and Inder Singh Namdhari (Independents) resigned after being elected to the 14th Lok Sabha.
Seven MLAs- Ravindra Rai, Kunti Singh, Manohar Tekriwal (all BJP), Thomas Hansda (Congress), Kamlesh Singh (NCP), Enos Ekka (Jharkhand Party) and Bhanu Pratap Shahi (Forward Bloc) were disqualified by the Speaker on grounds of defection. Five MLAs- Bishnu Bhaia, Pradeep Yadav (both BJP), RK Kishore (JDU), Uday Shankar Singh (RJD) and Stephen Marandi had voluntarily given up membership whereas Simaria assembly constituency fell vacant after death of CPI legislator Ram Chandra Ram.