MP elects speaker amid high drama
BHOPAL: Congress legislator NP Prajapti was on Tuesday elected speaker of the Madhya Pradesh assembly in the absence of Opposition MLAS who walked out of the House to protest the pro tem speaker’s refusal to allow them to propose BJP MLA Vijay Shah’s name for the post.
Ex-chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called it a “black day in the history of MP assembly”. As the proceedings began on the second day of the assembly session, pro tem speaker Deepak Saxena read out four motions from the treasury benches for election of Prajapati (60) to the post. The fifth motion from the Opposition proposed Vijay Shah’s (56) name for the constitutional post.
Minister for cooperative Govind Singh requested the pro tem speaker to take up the treasury benches’ motions first, citing rules. The BJP MLAS then entered the well of the House when the pro tem speaker didn’t entertain their plea to take up all the motions together and allow voting in the House for the post.
Amid sloganeering, leader of the Opposition Gopal Bhargava and ex-chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that they would boycott the proceedings after which the BJP MLAS staged a walkout. In the absence of opposition legislators, Congress MLAS proposed the name of Prajapati, following which the pro tem speaker ordered a voice vote. Later on the demand of BSP MLA Sanjeev Singh, the pro tem speaker announced a division of vote that showed Prajapati had secured all the 120 votes of Congress and its allies. In the House of 230 MLAS, the Congress has 114 and BJP 109 members. The Congress enjoys support of four independent MLAS, two BSP legislators and one SP MLA. The pro tem speaker didn’t participate in the voting. Chief minister Kamal Nath said the Opposition knew well right from the morning that it didn’t have the numbers in its favour. “That’s why it adopted such a strategy [walkout],” he said. Later, speaking to mediapersons, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh accused the BJP of horse-trading. He also alleged some BJP legislators had offered ~25 crore-~100 crore to a few MLAS in exchange of voting for the BJP nominee. Later, the Opposition MLAS led by Bhargava and Chouhan met governor Anandiben Patel and submitted a memorandum on the matter.
“The pro tem speaker read out four motions in reference to just one candidate whereas he didn’t read out the fifth motion which was in the business list. The election proceeding was carried [out] without taking into the consideration the fifth motion. It was a murder of democracy,” the memorandum read.