SP legislator suspended for indiscipline

Bhopal, Apr 01: Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday suspended it legislator Vijay Bahadur Singh Bundela who had voted against party whip to ruling Bharatiya Janata Party candidates in the recently held Rajya Sabha elections. The party leader of legislators in Madhya Pradesh assembly Sunilam had recently written to high command for strict action against Bundela and he also wrote to Vidhan Saha Speaker Ishwardas Rohani terminating Bundela’s membership from the assembly as he overlooked party whip.

Samajwadi Party National General Secretary Amar Singh told media persons here that he as happy that seven out of eight SP MLAs voted for independent candidate Vivek Tankha according to the whip of the party. “The act of Bundela was a suicidal attempt that he openly voted for BJP candidates,” he added. He informed that the state unit of the party has recently proposed to terminate primary membership of Bundela, but that is still under consideration. Talking about party’s whip to vote for Tankha, Singh said that Union Minister Kamal Nath had requested him for voting in favour of Tankha. “In order to strengthen non-communal forces, we voted for Congress-backed candidate,” he added.

On Nath’s request, he stated that Congress should withdraw its candidate from Betul Lok Sabha by-election in support of Samajwadi Party candidate. However, he denied that SP’s support to Congress-backed candidate Tankha was conditional. Regarding Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s different action, Singh stated these are her routine affairs. State SP president Narayan Tripathi also accompanied Singh.