Sulking after being humbled in the Janata Dal (United) presidential contest, former party president George Fernandes has alleged 'serious irregularities' in the organisational elections.
In a letter faxed to the Election Commission on Wednesday, a day after he suffered a humiliating 413-25 defeat at the hands of Sharad Yadav, Fernandes is learnt to have alleged that a large number of delegates were appointed without holding proper organisational elections.
"Like you, I, too, have come to learn about it now," party general secretary and national spokesman Shambhu Shrivastwa told PTI.
Party sources said that Aneel Hegde, who was removed as returning officer for the election of president just before
polling began on April 11, had also lodged a complaint before the EC, holding his ouster by the JD(U) national executive and his replacement with Subhas Srivastava, an MLA from Uttar Pradesh, as 'unconstitutional'.
Hegde, a Fernandes loyalist, was learnt to have said in his complaint that if there were charges against him, he
should have been issued a show cause notice by the national executive and the poll should have been postponed.
When asked for his comments on Hegde's complaint, Shrivastwa said, "It lacks any basis. Hegde had ratified the list of the national council members, who constitute the electoral college for presidential election, before nominations began. How can he later claim there were irregularities in selection of council members?"
In a letter to Sharad Yadav, which was received at his Delhi residence late in the evening on April 10, Hegde had expressed his inability to conduct the poll as the majority of state units had not not complied with the constitutional obligation of sending the full list of their active members to the party's central office. He also sought postponement of the election.
As Hegde 'went missing' at the time of the poll, the national executive had removed him just before the voting on April 11. "Hegde, while ratifying the electoral college had signed on every page of the voters list after which the filing of nominations began on April 8. Once the electoral process was set on motion, it was beyond his authority to postpone the poll," Shrivastwa said.
Fernandes and his supporters had boycotted the election and the veteran leader refused to attend the two-day national council meet, turning down the request of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who met him twice on Wednesday.
Fernandes, who left for Delhi Wednesday afternoon, remained largely inaccessible to the media but told a private TV news channel that 'the legislative assembly is not not everything, politics is done at the national level'.
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