Congress blames BJP for M.P. crisis, BJP demands floor test on March 16

The political situation in Madhya Pradesh continues to be in a state of crisis. A show of strength is likely to take place in the Assembly on March 16, ten days ahead of polling for the three Rajya Sabha seats from the State scheduled on March 26.

MLAs of the Opposition BJP and the ruling Congress are kept in private hotels in Manesar and Jaipur respectively while the rebel MLAs of the Congress are sequestered in Bengaluru. Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati has summoned the 22 Congress MLAs who have submitted resignations to appear before him and clarify whether they have resigned voluntarily or under compulsion.

Meanwhile, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said here on Thursday that his friend Jyotiraditya Scindia will have to hide his ideology to work in the BJP. “This is a fight of ideology, clear cut. On one side it is Congress and the BJP-RSS on the other. I know Jyotiraditya Scindia’s ideology, he was with me in college, I know him very well. He got worried about his political future, put his ideology in his pocket and went with the RSS,” Gandhi said.

He said the country is going through an economic crisis and whether someone from his team got a ticket to Rajya Sabha or not is not an issue. “The reality is, he (Scindia) will get neither respect there, neither will the emotion in his heart get satisfaction. I have an old friendship with Jyotiraditya,” he added.

Trust motion

The BJP, meanwhile, demanded that the Kamal Nath government should seek a trust motion in the Assembly on March 16. “This government has lost majority,” former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in Bhopal. “Since the government is in minority, we are going to request the Governor and the Speaker for a floor test on March 16 when the State budget session begins,” BJP’s chief whip in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Narottam Mishra said. “The governor and the speaker have the resignations of 22 MLAs. Now it is up to them to take a call,” he added.

Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who submitted his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha on Thursday, said it is a constitutional crisis created by the BJP and said the country should understand what kind of “manipulation the BJP has been doing to form its government”. “As Kamal Nath-ji has already said we are ready for the floor test. But, there should be a decision on the resignation of MLAs before the floor test,” Singh said.