Thursday, July 24, 2008
Children and women staging a dharna to denounce the kidnapping of children by a UG group
BJP, BJD,TDP expel errant MPs, others may follow
New Delhi, Jul 23: Cracking the whip, the BJP today summarily expelled eight of its MPs who cross-voted or abstained during the trust vote as shocked Opposition parties got down to fix errant MPs whose actions helped the UPA Government survive.
Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a constituent in BJP-led NDA, expelled Harihar Swain dubbing him as a "betrayer" while Telugu Desam Party(TDP) MP M Jagan-natham also faced similar action for defying party whip.
MDMK sources said in Chennai that the party will be seeking the disqualification of two of its MPS-L Ganesan and Gingee Rama-chandran-for voting for the Government.
Stung by his fellow MPs switching loyalties, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani said it sparked so much outrage in the party that it did not take more than five minutes to proceed against the MPs.
The eight members were among 24 Opposition MPs who either voted for the Government or abstained or remained absent.
"If there was no cross-voting, Government would have lost the trust vote," Advani told reporters a day after the Congress-led UPA Government sailed through the confidence vote.
Wasting no time, Advani said that action was also being taken to seek the disqualification of the eight MPs from the Lok Sabha for violation of party whip.
The MPs expelled are Brijbhushan Sharan Singh (Balrampur), Manjunath (Dharwad), Chandrabhan Singh (Damoh), HT Sanglia-na (Bangalore north), Ma- norama Madhwaraj (Udipi), Haribhav Madhav (Jalgaon), Babubhai Katara (Dohad) and Somabhai Patel (Surendranagar). The names of eight MPs half of whom who abstained were announced by BJP president Rajnath Singh at a news conference.
The anger against the errant BJPs even spilled to the streets when party activists staged violent protests outside the homes of Sangliana in Bangalore and Chandrabhan Singh in Indore.
Party MP Haribhau Rathod, who remained absent, also faced the ire of saffron protestors in suburban Mulund in Mumbai.
Orissa's BJD was also moving to seek disqualification of Swain, a known detractor of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, from the Lok Sabha. BJD has 11 MPs
In Chandigarh, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) took a serious view of party MP Sukh Dev Singh Libra's abstention during the trust vote saying stringent action would be taken against him. SAD has 8 MPs
Libra's abstention was a serious matter and the party would take tough action against him soon, a visibly perturbed SAD supremo Parkash Singh Badal told reporters
"During the debate on the confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, Libra was present on the first day. But, on the second day he left the House after signing the attendance register," he said.
In the JD-S camp, its disciplinary committee is expected to meet in Delhi to debate the line of action to be taken against its Karnataka MP M Shivanna for voting in favour of the Government.
Karnataka unit JDS president Merajuddin Patel said the meeting has been convened by president H D Deve Gowda. The party has three MPs.
A few MPs from JD-U, TRS, Shive Sena, NPF, NLP, Trinamool Congress and MNF also either voted in favour of the Government or abstained. PTI
CPI (M) expels Somnath Chatterjee
New Delhi, Jul 23 : CPI (M) today expelled Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party on the ground of "seriously compromising" its position.
"The Polit Bureau of the CPI (M) has unanimouisly decided to expel Somnath Chatterjee from the membership of the party with immediate effect," a party statement said after a meeting of its Polit Bureau.
"This action has been taken under Article 19 (13) of the party Constitution for seriously compromising the party position," it said.
Among those who attended the Polit Bureau meeting were General Secretary Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, MK Pandhe, S R Pillai and Brinda Karat. PTI
