Nath makes his case before MP guv
BHOPAL: Even as Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Friday told governor Lalji Tandon that he was ready to face a floor test provided 22 rebel Congress MLAS were released from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S “captivity”, the administration imposed prohibitory orders and deployed additional security forces at Bhopal airport.
The orders banning public gatherings of four or more people and security reinforcements followed a huge assembly of supporters of the two rival parties at the airport following reports of the rebel Congress legislators returning from Bengaluru.
On Friday morning, Nath met Tandon at Raj Bhavan and submitted a letter seeking intervention of Union home minister Amit Shah to bring back the legislators held “captive” in Bangalore. The CM also asked Tandon to accept his recommendation to sack six ministers, considered close to Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose decision to shift to the Bharatiya Janata Party this week has triggered a crisis for the MP government, from his cabinet. This was notified in the evening.
Soon after the meeting, reports started emerging that the rebel legislators may return. Police officers said that two buses were apparently sent by BJP leaders to facilitate travel of the MLAS from the airport to the state assembly, where they were supposed to meet speaker NP Prajapati to explain their resignations.
Soon, a large number of Congress workers, including some ministers, reached the airport, following which the Bhopal district administration issued prohibitory orders. The police then started dispersing the crowd as additional security personnel were deployed around the airport, police officials said. Pankaj Chaturvedi, who resigned as Congress spokesperson after former Union minister Scindia joined the BJP, said, “There were people in the crowd with lathis and sticks. There was an unprecedented deployment of police force and the police action was biased against the BJP workers. It all shows how the Kamal Nath government, which talks of democracy, wants to throttle democracy.”
Deputy inspector general (DIG) of police, Bhopal, Irshad Wali, said, “The allegations regarding biased action and security threat are baseless and fabricated. The fact is we removed each and every person from the airport. There were about 300 police personnel. Collector of Bhopal, Tarun Pithode, and I supervised the situation. We detained a number of persons and released them near jail. We did our best and will continue to do our best to uphold the sanctity of our institutions.”
BJP leaders said the chaos at the airport resulted in the postponement of return of the rebel MLAS. “All the 22 MLAS had moved out of Bengaluru resort to return to Bhopal. Chartered planes were ready but unprecedented deployment of about 1,000 police personnel at Bhopal airport alarmed the MLAS as well as top BJP leaders. Hence, it was decided to return to MP only when there is enough CISF security,” said a BJP leader, who is in touch with the rebel Congress legislators.
The BJP leader, who requested anonymity, said the decision to delay the return of the MLAS was taken when the Central Industrial Reserve Force (CISF) personnel at Bhopal airport expressed their inability to ensure the security of the MLAS. “More CISF personnel may be deployed to ensure safe return of the MLAS in batches,” the leader said. On Thursday, speaker NP Prajapati had issued notices to the 22 rebel Congress legislators to appear before him by Friday to explain the reasons for their resignation.
“I waited for six of the MLAS for three hours but none turned up. I may fix a new date for them. I will talk to other MLAS on Saturday as per the rules and procedures,” Prajapati said on Friday.
Constitution expert and chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Bar Council, Shivendra Upadhyay, said, “A speaker can take his own time in deciding about resignations but in the era of technology he can talk to MLAS through video conferencing. He can request the police chief of Bengaluru to facilitate the video conferencing in a free and fair atmosphere from a police control room.”
On Friday morning, chief minister Kamal Nath met Tandon at Raj Bhavan, where he expressed his openness to facing a floor test to prove a majority on the floor of the house and asked the governor to conduct an early inquiry into the submission of resignation letters of “allegedly captive Congress legislators” by BJP leaders.
BJP MLA and former home minister Bhupendra Singh had handed over the original copy of the resignation letters of 22 rebel Congress MLAS on Tuesday and Thursday.
In the letter, the CM also alleged that two ministers, Jitu Patwari and Lakhan Singh Yadav, along with Narayan Singh Chaudhary, father of “captive” legislator Manoj Chaudhary, were manhandled by Karnataka police and BJP leaders and prevented from meeting the party legislators.
“This is mockery of rule of law, where in the leaders of the BJP have hatched a conspiracy of abducting the Congress legislators to destabilise the duly elected government,” Nath said. He also provided details of how the 19 legislators were taken to Bengaluru on March 8 in three chartered planes and then on March 10, when the BJP leaders presented their resignation letters to the speaker.
BJP leaders denied the chief minister’s claim.
Leader of the opposition Gopal Bhargava said, “The chief minister’s allegations against the BJP are baseless and seem to be a result of his frustration as he doesn’t enjoy the trust of his own MLAS. Instead of blaming the BJP he should introspect as to why the MLAS are upset with the government.”
The Congress, before the rebellion, had 114 MLAS in the assembly with an effective strength of 228. It also has the support of four Independents, two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAS and one from the Samajwadi Party, but some of these lawmakers may now switch sides in case of an early floor test. The BJP has 107 lawmakers and in case the resignations of 22 MLAS is accepted, the party will have majority in the house with a reduced strength of 206. The majority mark would be 104.
According to the Congress leaders, chief minister Kamal Nath’s strategy is to delay the voting on the trust motion in the assembly to frustrate the rebel legislators so that they can return to the party. There was also speculation that the budget session slated to start from March 16 may be delayed by a week or so.
Although speaker Prajapati refused to comment on this, a Congress Rajya Sabha member wondered how the government could hold the session when legislators were being held hostage. “Let the BJP free our MLAS first,” he said, requesting anonymity.
The Congress is also planning to move court to get its MLAS back to Bhopal on the grounds that even the family members of these legislators were not being allowed to meet them. Congress media in-charge Shobha Oza said, “We will move the court in a day or two with a request to the court to rescue the MLAS held hostage by the BJP.”
On Friday, newly elected Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar with minister Jitu Patwari met the state’s additional director general of police Amar Kumar Pandey urging him to allow access to the legislators. They were accompanied by Narayan Choudhary, the father of rebel MLA Manoj Choudhary.
Choudhary alleged that his son has been forcibly confined in the resort against his will and wanted an opportunity to meet with him, a charge denied by the BJP.
“We have requested police to facilitate the meeting of father and the son, without any threat or force and in a free and fair manner,” Shivakumar said.