Patna: Even as the RJD Dhaka MLA Faisal Rahman’s mysterious absence from the voting process during the just-held Rajya Sabha elections led to the ignominious defeat of lone opposition candidate A D Singh, the RJD leadership is caught in a peculiar situation about acting against its legislator.The situation is such that if it acts against its MLA, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav could lose the status of the leader of opposition (LoP) in the House; if it doesn’t, the accusing fingers will be raised towards him.Experts said to be recognised as the LoP, a party must secure at least 10% of the total strength of the House, which comes to 25 in the 243-member assembly. Incidentally, the RJD won exactly the same number of seats in last year’s assembly elections and thus, acting against its MLA could leave Tejashwi’s current status in trouble, they explained.On Wednesday, JD(U)’s chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar dared Tejashwi to act against his party legislator for his act. “I challenge Tejashwi to expel his MLA from the party. He can’t. If the MLA is expelled from the party, Tejashwi will lose his position as the LoP,” Kumar told reporters on Wednesday.The RJD offered a different logic behind not acting against the Dhaka MLA, who remained absent from the voting process. “We will soon serve a show-cause notice to him but we can’t act since he was not caught involved in cross-voting. Instead, he remained absent on medical grounds,” a RJD spokesperson said on Wednesday.The Grand Alliance had fielded A D Singh as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls and his victory looked certain since he enjoyed the support of 41 legislators, including the support of five AIMIM and one BSP legislator, but when it came to casting their votes, three Congress and one RJD MLA were found mysteriously absent and their mobile phones were found “switched off” or “out of reach’.
