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Another blow for Laloo
Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav suffered another setback on Saturday, when the Supreme Court stripped his nominee
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the party presidential poll supervision duty.
Disclosing that Singh was ''in effect trying to obstruct the finalisation of the voters' list and compel the court to defer the election indefinitely'', the SC said only senior party leader Madhu Dandavate would now oversee the election.
A vacation bench comprising Justices S C Sen and S P Kurdukakar passed an order to this effect following party's general secretary Bapu Kaldate's application seeking an appropriate direction in view of the uncooperative attitude of Singh, appointed earlier to hold the election alongwith Dandavate.
The court noted in its order that from the minutes of the meeting
between the two observers (Dandavate and Singh) held on Friday, it appeared that the latter was trying to derail the election. Singh was also not willing to carry out the order of the court, the judges said.
''We are informed that an attempt was made by
Singh and Dandavate to sit together and arrive at a final list
of voters. That has not been possible. The attitude of Singh,
the nominee of Laloo Prasad Yadav, appeared to be strange in the
first meeting itself, when he said the finalisation of the list of voters and holding of the election should be deferred, contrary to the decision of the court,'' the judges pointed out.
Under these circumstances, the court directed that Dandavate
alone would finalise the voters' list, fix the venue and hold the
election as scheduled.
The court said that all other directions previously given by it
would be carried out by Dandavate. ''It is only after the
election is held and the result is announced that any aggrieved
party would be entitled to challenge the election,'' the judges
said.
Earlier B B Singh, counsel for Laloo Yadav, told the court that he had no confidence and faith in Dandavate.
The judges then observed, ''We are not concerned with the views
of the parties at this stage. The court's order must be implemented.''
Meanwhile, Laloo Yadav on Friday filed an anticipatory bail application in the Patna high court in connection with the fodder scam.
The chief minister filed the bail petition against the order of
the CBI special court, which rejected his application on Wednesday.
UNI
EARLIER STORY:
JD general secretaries take tough stand, split imminent
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