M A I N   N E W S

George, Nitish JD(U) members: EC

NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (UNI) — The Election Commission today declared that Samata Party President George Fernandes, Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar and eight other Members of Parliament were members of the Janata Dal (United) and hence could not be treated as office-bearers of the Samata Party for the coming Assembly elections in four states.

In a communication to Samata Party General Secretary Jaya Jaitly, Secretary to the Commission K.J. Rao said as per the records of the Election Commission and the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Mr Fernandes, Mr Kumar, Mr Manjay Lal, Captain Jainarain Nishad, Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh, Mr Brahmanand Mandal, Mr Arun Kumar, Mahendra Baitha, Prabhunath Singh and Dr Bentrix d’Souza were members of the Janata Dal (United) and as such, they were not authorised to sign forms A and B for candidates of the recognised Samata Party for the coming Assembly elections.

“Consequently, if any of these persons has signed any Forms A and B under the Symbols Order, as the office bearers of the Samata Party, intimating the names of the party’s official candidates for the purpose of current general elections to the State Legislative Assemblies of Bihar, Haryana, Orissa and Manipur or any other byelections being held simultaneously, such forms shall neither be entertained nor honoured by the election authorities concerned,” the commission said.

The order passed by Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill and Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, however, said to sum up, the Samata Party “is a recognised party and enjoys the privileges under the Symbols Order in the elections underway.”

It said the commission only wanted to ensure that Forms A and B were signed for candidates by an office-bearer duly authorised by the party but other than those derecognised.

The commission had earlier directed the Samata Party and the Lok Shakti, both constituents of JD(U), to clarify the contradictory stand taken by them before the commission in the matter of merger of three parties into JD(U).

The commission rejected the argument of the Samata Party that affiliation of MPs elected to the Lok Sabha on JD(U) symbol had no bearing on their position in the Samata Party and it should not be construed adversely in the context of other persons seeking elections to state Assemblies on its ticket and symbol.

Asserting that Mr Fernandes and nine others were members of JD(U) and not Samata Party, it observed that the members concerned had themselves given individual declaration to Lok Sabha Speaker at the time of assuming their seats in the house.

The panel recalled that Mr Fernandes, Manjay Lal and Nishad had filed individual affidavits affirming that they were not only members of JD(U) but also they were not members of any other political party.

Samata Party (SP) general secretary Jaya Jaitley had submitted to the EC that the three affidavits were “unauthorisedly notarised in complete breach of trust and faith in an attempt to bolster the false position that the SP had ceased to exist as a distinct political party”.

On Ms Jaitley’s charge against the people whose names she had not chosen to disclose, the EC said it was for her and the persons concerned to take appropriate proceedings under law for this alleged breach of trust and faith.