The Hindu : EC should decide on splinter groups: Cong.

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Thursday, Jan 30, 2003

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EC should decide on splinter groups: Cong.

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR JAN. 29. The chief spokesman of the Congress, S. Jaipal Reddy, today said the Election Commission should be empowered to decide whether or not to recognise groups in legislature or parliamentary parties in the event of a split.

Talking to presspersons here, Mr. Reddy said that going by the experiences in independent India, Speakers always proved to be partisan.

Though the power could be vested in courts, the pronouncement of judgments might take a longer time. Therefore, the EC should be empowered to take a decision in such situations.

Asked for the Congress' reaction to the developments in Uttar Pradesh, he said that the split in the Congress was the result of a pre-meditated conspiracy. As and when the Assembly session was called for, the Mayawati Government would crumble under the weight of internal squabbles in the ruling coalition, he said and demanded the immediate convening of the U.P. Assembly to test the majority of the Government. The Congress would surely vote against the Government in the Assembly, he added.

Mr. Reddy said that the present Speaker was also responsible for the split in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) earlier. He conferred recognition on the breakaway group, though it did not have a strength of one-third of the total number of BSP legislators.

A case pertaining to the split engineered then was still pending in the court of law. Against this background, the loopholes in the Anti-Defection Law should be plugged, he observed.

Mr. Reddy said the Congress would make "reasonable'' seat adjustments by aligning with like-minded secular parties in the coming Assembly elections in different States. The Congress had been in a coalition for over three decades in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Gujarat election trends were exclusive to that State and would have no impact anywhere else.

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