Chandigarh, March 14
In an act of solidarity with his comrades, rebel Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi today quit the Lok Sabha.
Bishnoi had sent in his resignation from the Lok Sabha on December 2 last when he had announced the formation of his separate party, Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), at a rally held in Rohtak, the native district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. However, that resignation had to come into effect from June 1 next.
Today, Bishnoi faxed his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, which is from immediate effect. This, he said, had been done to protest against the “second murder of democracy by the Congress” by disqualifying his two supporter MLAs, Dharam Pal Malik
and Rakesh Kamboj, from the membership of the Haryana assembly yesterday. He said the Congress murdered the democracy for the first time when a non-MLA (Hooda) was “nominated” as the leader of its legislature wing in the assembly.
Talking to mediapersons in the parking of the Vidhan Sabha, Bishnoi, who was accompanied by Malik and Kamboj, said they were not with him because of any vested interest but because they too wanted to raise the voice of the common man like him.
His father, former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, who is also facing disqualification proceedings, he indicated, may also quit the assembly a day before Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian is scheduled to take up the hearing of the petition against him on March 24.
Bishnoi would meet Chatterjee after March 21 to complete the necessary formalities about his resignation. Till then he cannot go to Delhi because the tradition requires him to stay in Chandigarh in view of bereavement in his family.
He said since he had proved that he was not power hungry by resigning from the Lok Sabha in solidarity with his colleagues, Hooda should also quit the assembly and contest against him from a constituency of his choice. Later, he clarified that the constituency should be “neutral”. He said if Hooda defeated him, he would retire from active politics. “However, if Hooda is afraid to contest against me, I invite him for a debate from a public platform on any political issue,” he added.
Criticising Kadian, Bishnoi and his colleagues said like Chatterjee, he should have also referred the disqualification petitions to a committee of the House. Accusing Kadian of having a “Lok Dal mentality”, they alleged that he used to tell Malik and Kamboj to express their faith in Sonia Gandhi and the Congress so that the proceedings against them could be dropped. They said: “Such a partisan attitude does not behove a person the august office of Speaker.” They said instead of “touching the feet of Sonia, we would prefer to touch the feet of people, who are supreme in a democracy.” They would not challenge their disqualification in a court of law.
Bishnoi said he was not among those who would desert their colleagues for vested interests. He accused Hooda of leaving Sri Krishan Hooda, who had vacated his assembly seat for him, in the lurch.
When asked about his future plans, he said he would contest the Lok Sabha byelection from Bhiwani, while in the general elections he would contest from Nawal, a newly demarcated assembly constituency in Hisar district. Bishnoi said he would start a mass contact programme from May 15 by visiting as many villages as possible before the next elections.
Meanwhile, media in charge of the Janhit Congress Ran Singh Mann claimed here today that Bishnoi had emerged as a fighter in the murky politics of the state.
