Kamal Nath to address media ahead of Madhya Pradesh floor test

BHOPAL: Speaker NP Prajapati accepted the resignations of 16 rebel Congress MLAs hours ahead of Friday's floor test in the assembly boiling it down to a tight contest of numbers for the Congress government.
After the Supreme Court Thursday evening gave the Kamal Nath government less than a day to face a floor test his side was closeted in talks, while the BJP was openly celebrating it had the numbers.

The floor test is scheduled at 2 pm in the day and CM Nath has called a media conference at 12 noon, sparking speculation on whether he would call it quits without facing the House.

The Congress has only 92 MLAs in the House which now has a reduced strength of 206, and it clearly it can't make it past the halfway mark without a bit of help from the other side.

In the current circumstances each and every MLA is important for both the parties, and the role of others - four independents, two BSP MLAs and one SP MLA - is very crucial

The BSP and SP MLAs were absent in the House on Monday, giving rise to speculation that they had sided with the BJP.

Some BJP leaders claimed in close-door meetings that a few of these MLAs would cross-vote or remain absent in order to ensure the defeat of the government.

However, these MLAs claimed that they were still with the government.

“If the government falls, it will fall because of the Congress MLA and not me,” Rajesh Shukla, SP MLA from Bijawar told ET. “Our party has already issued a whip to vote for the government in the assembly.”

On being asked why he was absent from the assembly, Shukla said that was because he knew there would be no trust vote.

The two BSP MLAs also expressed a similar opinion, although one of them seemed equally unhappy with the BJP and Congress. “In the past, we have voted for Congress and will do whatever our party tells us to do,” Sanjeev Singh, a BSP MLA told ET.

Rambai, another BSP MLA who was rescued from a Gurugram hotel by Congress leaders on March 3, said she would decide on the basis on what the party says. “Neither Congress nor BJP is going to do anything for us,” Govind Parihar, Rambai’s husband told ET. “We have got a call from BSP leader Ramji Gautam to neither vote for the BJP or Congress.”

Meanwhile, Jaivardhan Singh, a minister in Kamal Nath’s government told ET, “We are in touch with her (Rambai) and they (other MLAs) are with us.”

The four independents are currently staying with Congress MLAs in a hotel in Bhopal.

“We are all together and with Kamal Nath Ji,” Thakur Surendra Nawal Singh, an independent MLA told ET.

Congress is also banking on the support of at least two BJP MLAs.

The party is hopeful that Maihar BJP MLA Narayan Tripathy and Beohari BJP MLA Sharad Kol, who cross-voted in July last year, are with it this time around. Tripathy has openly sided with the Congress and on Wednesday, the government conceded to his demand of naming Maihar as a new district.

Kol was heavily guarded by BJP MLAs in the assembly but was seen hobnobbing with Congress leaders as soon as he got an opportunity. Kol is currently staying with BJP MLAs in Sehore.