BHUBANESWAR: Even as the BJD MLA from Baripada in Mayurbhanj district, Sananda Marandi is all set to be elected unopposed as the deputy speaker, the Opposition has raised moral questions over his selection by the BJD bosses to the constitutional post. Two cases, GR No-1065/98 and GR No-569/05, are pending against him and in the trial stage in the SDJM Court, Baripada. Both the cases were lodged against him for assaulting government servants. Though there is no legal or constitutional bar on anybody to be appointed as deputy speaker if cases are pending against him, he should be without any blemish, a senior Congress leader said. Another Congress leader said when there was no bar on him to be elected as a MLA with these pending cases, there cannot be any bar now. The issue is not of legal interpretation but questions of propriety and moral values, he said and asked what moral values can one expect from this government. Marandi, however, dismissed the cases as purely political. On Tuesday, accompanied by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, he filed nomination papers. Marandi submitted his papers to the office of the Secretary of the Assembly. While Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raghunath Mohanty was a proposer for Marandi, BJD’s Chief Whip Rabinarayan Pani supported. The post of deputy speaker was vacant after Lal Bihari Himirika resigned and joined the Cabinet as Minister in charge of ST-SC and OBC development department.
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