Whips that won’t be cracked on defaulters in Jammu

NC, Congress, PDP worried over infidelity of ‘alienated’ MLAs

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

JAMMU, Apr 4: The anti-defection law in practice in Jammu & Kashmir makes all MLAs bound to vote in accordance with the directions of their respective party whips in the elections for Legislative Council. However, the parties have no legal mechanism to ascertain whether a voter has gone by direction of the whip or contrary to it. In other words, any MLA belonging to any political party would be bound to vote for the choice of his or her party but at the same time free to practice it according to his personal choice and commitment. This difference in conducting of elections for the Upper House of the Parliament and Upper House of the State Legislature keeps Jammu & Kashmir open to horse trading on at least one unreserved seat in Jammu division in the Legislative Council elections on April 13^th.

Chief Whips of National Conference (Mubarak Gul), Congress (Ghulam Ahmed Mir), PDP (Abdul Gaffar Sofi), BJP (Ashok Khajuria) and National Panthers Party (Balwant Singh Mankotia) would obviously direct members of their respective political parties to vote for the choice of the party. But, till date, there is no instrument in Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Representation Act of 1957 to find whether a particular MLA has obeyed the direction of his or her party whip or not.

“If shown to anybody, including a chief whip or an authorized polling agent, the ballot would become invalid”, Chief Electoral Officer and Principal Secretary Home, B R Sharma, clarified to Early Times. He said that the elections for Legislative Council of Jammu & Kashmir were being held under the procedure laid down in J&K Peoples Representation Act of 1957 that had no provision of open voting. On the other hand, elections of Rajya Sabha members and President of India were being held throughout the India, including in the special status state of Jammu & Kashmir, under the central Peoples Representation Act of 1951, that makes members of the electoral colleges bound to vote in open in accordance with the whips of their respective parties.

The provision of secret ballot was replaced by the provision of open ballot for Rajya Sabha and Presidential elections by way of an amendment in the central act when horse trading among MLAs and Lok Sabha members became a subject of national concern in the last 10 years. Owners and nominees of major corporate houses were known for “buying” the votes for huge amounts of money. An amendment in the Central law was finally introduced and adopted by the Parliament when Law Commission as well as Supreme Court of India asserted that members of the central electoral colleges could not assert their personal choice or commitment in the matter of electing members of Rajya Sabha and President of India. Under this law, MLAs of different political parties were asked by respective party whips to vote in open in the Rajya Sabha elections of 2009 when MPs, including the NC supremo Dr Farooq Abdullah, were elected.

This did not apply to election of MLCs that were held around the same time in 2009 under J&K Peoples Representation Act of 1957. Since the state Act has not been amended and brought at par with the central Act in the last two years, yet again the elections to fill up six vacancies in Legislative Council are being held with secret ballot.

Returning Officer and Secretary of Legislative Council, Mohammad Ramzan, told Early Times that in case a party whip established that a particular MLA of his party had gone in violation of the party direction, the defaulter would be subject to disqualification as MLA. However, he too elaborated that there was no legal or scientific system in vogue to find whether the member had observed the direction of his or her party whip in affirmation or breach.

With the prospects of a close contest between the ruling coalition and the possible PDP-NPP combine brightening up on one unreserved seat in Jammu, all the three major political parties are currently reframing their strategies. Notwithstanding factional warfare, little possible of cross-voting is existing in Congress. NPP is said to be divided in 2:1. However, arch rivals, NC and PDP, are both worried over disenchantment of at least six MLAs in each party. Criss-cross vibrations were palpable during the lately concluded budget session of the state Assembly.

Political sources revealed that the strategists in both the parties were currently toying with the idea of seeking oath on holy scriptures from respective MLAs of their parties to ensure that their votes did not cross the floor. But, at the same time, NPP as well as BJP were not in favour of “extra-constitutional measures” like forcing the MLAs to take oath of allegiance to the party.

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