Sharad: Will contest RS disqualification in court

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 7

Former JD-U leader Sharad Yadav today said he would challenge his disqualification from the Rajya Sabha in court and claimed that his opposition to JD-U chief Nitish Kumar and the BJP resulted in the ouster.

Lamenting that he was denied a “fair play”, Yadav said the case of embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who “looted” public exchequer, was sent to the Ethics Committee of Parliament, but he was not allowed such an opportunity despite being a veteran parliamentarian who took up “people’s causes”.

Addressing a press conference here, the senior leader disapproved of Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu’s comments defending his decision but said the institution of the Rajya Sabha was too important to him to attack the constitutional officer.

Yadav said, even Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani terrorist hanged following his conviction in the Mumbai terror attack case, was allowed to exhaust all appeals available to him but in his case the “supreme court”, an apparent reference to Naidu, gave an order straightaway without referring the matter to a parliamentary committee.

Yadav, who was elected to the Lok Sabha seven times and the Rajya Sabha four times, said in a lighter vein that his “new freedom” would give him more time in uniting opposition parties against the BJP.

The JD-U had sought Yadav’s disqualification after he attended a RJD rally in Patna in August following his opposition to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s decision to jettison his party’s alliance with the RJD and the Congress and join hands with the BJP.