Sharad Yadav submits reply to RS chair over disqualification plea

JD(U)'s rebel MPs Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar today submitted their replies running into over 400 pages to the Rajya Sabha chairman, as they contested their party's plea that they be disqualified for their alleged anti-party activities.

Javed Raza, a general secretary of the rebel faction, said the two Rajya Sabha members submitted their response through lawyers to the office of Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

"They have argued that they are the ones running the real JD(U). They have also referred to our national executive meeting held here recently. The reply runs into over 400 pages," he said.

The Nitish Kumar-led party had urged Naidu, who as vice president is the ex-officio Rajya Sabha chairman, to disqualify Yadav and Anwar, saying they had violated its directives and taken part in meetings of opposition parties.

Yadav, in turn, has claimed that he had stuck to the party's earlier line to oppose the BJP and it was Kumar who went against it by joining hands with the saffron party.

After the two MPs sought one more month to file their replies to a Rajya Sabha's communication seeking their response to their party's disqualification plea, they were given one more week to respond.