NEW DELHI (PTI):Seven Indian Parliament nans of the opposition Janata Dal’s breakaway Ajit group were on Aug.2 admitted to the Ruling Congress I but their leader Ajit Singh questioned the legal validity of the induction.
Reacting sharply to the announcement of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister V.C.Shukla that prime minister Narasimha Rao had admitted the seven rebel JD (A) members of the lower house of parliament to Congress l, Ajit Singh said it appeared that the decision was taken in unseemly haste. Speaker, Shivraj Patil, has so far not recognized the breakaway faction of his party, Ajit Singh added.
With the joining of these rebel JD{A) members, the strength of the Congress l in the lower house of Parliament has gone up from 248 to 255, The Congress I still needs 10 more members to secure an absolute majority in the house.
Meanwhile, senior Congress I leader, Arjun Singh, said he and his supporters had no gradge against those rejoining the Congress I, but warned that if an attempt was made to marginalize “loyaland disciplined partymen,” it was bound to be strongly resented, His request for a CWC meeting to discuss their admission was motivated by a logic, Singh said, adding “it must be remembered that it is the Congress party which brought anti-defection law on the Statute book.”
Article extracted from this publication >> August 6, 1993
