Madhya Pradesh Assembly speaker NP Prajapati declared that he had accepted the resignation of 16 rebel Congress MLAs who have been camping in Bengaluru for more than 10 days. Prajapati's surprise move, barely 12 hours before Kamal Nath-led Congress is to face the floor test on the Supreme Court's orders, reduces the strength of the assembly to 206.
Thursday's development reduces the majority mark of the assembly to 104, raising questions about the survival of the Kamal Nath government. The BJP, the lead opposition party in the state, has 107 MLAs as compared to 92 of the Congress, 4 independents, 2 of BSP and 1 SP lawmaker.
The speaker had already accepted the resignation of six rebel MLAs who were ministers in the Congress government and were considered loyal to ex-Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.
The Congress had made several efforts to reach out to the rebel MLAs over the last few days. But the MLAs - who were approached by chief minister Kamal Nath, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president DK Shivakumar and cabinet ministers - refused to budge.
Speaker Prajapati's announcement coincided with reports that Kamal Nath would address a media conference at around noon. Prajapati didn't comment on the floor test to be conducted in the House.
The formal notification convening the assembly to meet at 2 pm was issued by the assembly secretariat well past midnight. Speaker Prajapati had abruptly adjourned the House on March 16 to meet at 11 am on March 26, citing the risk posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
BJP MLA Shivraj Singh Chouhan on whose petition the Supreme Court's judgment came on Thursday evening regarding the floor test wrote to Speaker Prajapati at the night to reconvene the assembly for the floor test.
The Supreme Court on Thursday had ordered the Madhya Pradesh government to prove its majority on the floor of the state assembly by 5 pm on Friday, a course of action it chose to adopt without waiting for the speaker to take a call on the resignations of the rebel MLAs.
A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta advanced the meeting of the assembly from March 26 to March 20, effectively setting aside the direction of speaker NP Prajapati to adjourn the House until March 26.
BJP leader
Former minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose exit from the Congress to join the BJP had dented the party in the state, cheered the top court's ruling. "I welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered to protect the democratic values in Madhya Pradesh," he said.
Chief minister Kamal Nath didn't make his stand clear on the floor test till late night but sent word that there would be a media conference at his official residence at noon on Friday.
Addressing MLAs at the Congress legislature party meeting held at the chief minister's house on Thursday night, Kamal Nath briefed them about the developments over the past few days.
"The Supreme Court's verdict came today (on floor test). We pleaded our case strongly. We also brought to the Supreme Court the fact regarding 16 Congress MLAs held captive (in Bengaluru). As per the SC judgment the floor test is to be held on March 20. But we are not disappointed. We are still united. BJP played a dirty game by keeping our MLAs captive in Bengaluru. BJP has been hatching conspiracies right from day one to topple the government as the government launched a drive against mafia in the state," he said.