The scuffle between Minister without Portfolio Rajlal Yadav and suspended lawmaker BP Yadav led to postponement of the parliamentary party meeting on Monday morning.[break]
MPRF-R had called its parliamentary party meeting at Singha Durbar to hold discussion on the appointment of a new parliamentary party leader to replace JP Gupta, who is in prison on corruption charge.
When asked how the incident took place, Rajlal Yadav said BP Yadav came down on him after he tried to stop the latter from talking unnecessarily.
“I asked why BP, who has been suspended from the Constituent Assembly (CA) as its member for his alleged involvement in misuse of diplomatic passport, attends meetings of the parliamentary party,” said Rajlal Yadav, adding, “Then he came to me and caught my collar.”
Rajlal, who is also secretary of the parliamentary party, said he also urged Acting Chairman Rajkishor Yadav to force BP out of the meeting. “However, he (Rajkishor) did not act on my request saying he had invited BP to the meeting.”
Yadav said the meeting could not take a decision on the parliamentary party leader as he and Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Nandan Kumar Dutta also staked claims to the post.
Following the incident, Rajlal and Dutta walked out of the meeting. The meeting was postponed shortly after.
Dutta argued that he should be the parliamentary party leader as he is the deputy leader of the parliamentary party.
However, MPRF-R General Secretary Atmaram Sah, who was present at the meeting, claimed that lawmaker Rajlal Yadav himself invited the dispute.
“He (Rajlal) kept asking to force BP out of the meeting saying BP has no right to attend the meeting, then they quarreled,” said Sah.
Sah maintained that if Rajlal Yadav has objection to BP attending the parliamentary party meeting, he should have objected in previous meetings, too.
“He had no objection before today (Monday), but when it came to the issue of parliamentary party leader he had objection,” argued Sah.
He said 10 lawmakers have put forth their views that the acting chairman should be the parliamentary party leader so as to avoid two power centers in the party.
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