25 May, on the day of voting for all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana in the sixth phase of 18th Lok Sabha general elections, sudden demise of independent MLA Rakesh Daulatabad from the Badshahpur constituency, new political developments has been witnessed in the state politics as the question pertaining to “whether the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is in majority of minority”, continues to surface and due to the demise of independent MLA Daulatabad, the number of members of the present Haryana Assembly has further decreased to 87. The total number of members of the 90-member Haryana Assembly first decreased by one to 89 on March 13, when former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar who stepped from the post of Chief Minister and was fielded by the saffron party from Karnal Lok Sabha polls, resigned from the post of MLA. His resignation was accepted by the state assembly speaker Gyan Chand Gupta the same day. One and a half month later, on April 30, the Speaker Gyan Chand Gupta accepted the resignation of Ranjeet Singh Chautala with effect from the previous date of 24th March who held the portfolio of cabinet minister in Nayab Singh Saini run state government. However, this reduced the number of the House by one more to 88. In the 18th Lok Sabha general elections, Manohar Lal is the BJP candidate from Karnal Lok Sabha seat and Ranjit Singh is the BJP candidate from Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
However, now after the death of independent Rakesh Daulatabad on May 25, the number of members of the present Haryana Assembly was reduced by one more from 88 to 87, due to which the majority figure in the House has reduced from 45 to 44 as on date. Two and a half months ago, on March 12, when Manohar Lal Khattar was replaced with Nayab Saini then that government was formed with the help of 41 BJP MLAs (including the Speaker), six independents and one Halopa (Haryana Lokhit Party). ) MLA Gopal Kanda i.e. had the support of 48 MLAs. First, after the resignation of Manohar Lal and then Ranjit Singh and earlier this month, three independent MLAs supporting the BJP government – Dharam Pal Gondar from Nilokheri in Karnal, Randhir Singh Golan from Pundri in Kaithal and Sombir Sangwan Dadri in Charkhi Dadri district announced withdrawal of support from the current government (though due to some technical reasons, the Governor and Speaker are yet to be officially informed about this), the number of MLAs supporting the Nayab Saini government came down to 43. After which the BJP government of Haryana, as claimed by Congress and Janayak Janta Party (JJP) , has reportedly come into minority and fresh assembly elections should be conducted immediately by imposing President’s rule in the state. Now, after the death of Daulatabad, one of the two independent MLAs supporting the government on May 25, the government now has the support of only 42 MLAs.
The results of the by-election of Karnal Assembly seat will be declared on June 4 in which Chief Minister Nayab Saini is the BJP candidate and if he wins the election and becomes MLA, then the number of BJP MLAs in the House will increase again. It will increase to 41, but since five MLAs of the current assembly – Varun Mullana and Rao Dan Singh from Congress, Mohanlal Badoli from BJP, Abhay Chautala from INLD and Naina Singh Chautala from JJP are also contesting the election of Lok Sabha MP and if one or If a person becomes an MP by winning two or more seats, then he will have to leave the post of MLA within the stipulated time, after which there may be further changes in the current arithmetic of the Assembly and due to this, political uncertainty will remain till then.
Meanwhile, divulging more details in this regard, Hemant Kumar, an advocate of Punjab and Haryana High Court and expert in legislative and constitutional matters, said that today again said that although the figure of 42 MLAs currently supporting the Nayab Saini government in the Members Haryana Assembly may prima facie appear to be a minority, but whether it is actually a minority can be determined only during the voting in the House.
This can be proved because despite the party whip being issued in the voting during the confidence motion or no-confidence motion brought by the opposition in the House and despite the threat of disqualification from the membership of the House under the anti-defection law, the MLAs of the opposition not only can remain absent but also can do cross voting against their own party. A few days ago a statement was given by former Chief Minister Manohar Lal that some MLAs of the JJP and Congress are in touch with him.
Recently, JJP filed a petition before the Speaker under the anti-defection law against two JJP MLAs – Jogiram Sihag and Ram Niwas because they were supporting the BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha general elections. Of course, BJP has 40 members (MLAs) in the present Haryana Assembly, but constitutionally, primarily only 39 BJP MLAs can vote in favor (if there is a confidence motion) and against (if there is a no-confidence motion) of the Nayab Saini government. Because according to Article 189 (1) of the Indian Constitution, the Speaker of the Assembly can give his casting vote only in case of equality of votes on any proposal in the House.
