The 'not-so-cordial' relationship of the BSP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Madhya Pradesh with the minority Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has created an opportunity for the BJP as it plans to pose a major challenge during the speaker's election in the state assembly.
The inaugural session of the 15th assembly of Madhya Pradesh is beginning on January 7 and will go on for a week. The session is called for the oath of the 230 new members and election of a new speaker.
Traditionally, in Madhya Pradesh assembly, election to speaker’s post is conducted "unopposed" and the post of deputy-speaker is given to the opposition party.
Deepak Saxena, a staunch supporter of Kamal Nath and MLA from Chhindwara, is tipped to be the pro-tem speaker for the inaugural session. Saxena was a minister in the Digvijay Singh cabinet 15 years back and a four-time Congress MLA.
His appointment as the pro-tem speaker is being considered by the Congress, overlooking the presence of other very senior MLAs like Gopal Bhargav Narottam Mishra of the BJP and Laxman Singh of the Congress. "Kamal Nath does not want to take any risks during the election of the speaker to the house, where the ruling party has 114 MLAs of 230," said Brajesh Rajput, a political commentator.
The Congress is two MLAs short of a simple majority in the house, while the BJP has 109 MLAs. However, seven others, including four independents, two BSP and one SP MLAs are supporting the Congress.
"All options are open in front of the BJP, it is yet to take any final decision on contesting for the speaker post," said Vinay Sahastrabuddhe, National BJP General Secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh. However, the BJP move is seen as trying to fish in troubled waters following the statements from BSP supremo Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Mayawati on Monday threatened the Congress to pull out support if all politically-motivated cases against dalits were not withdrawn. Earlier, Yadav had expressed unhappiness over not including his only MLA as minister in the Madhya Pradesh cabinet.
On the other hand, Congress sources said that if the BJP presses for election of the speaker, then the party would not give the post of deputy-speaker to the opposition.
Meanwhile, reports of in-fighting within the BJP have surfaced where the RSS-controlled organisation has started holding former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan responsible for the debacle of the party in the assembly election. The same group does not now want Shivraj Singh to be in the lead role. On the contrary, a section close to Chouhan wants him to lead the party from the front by becoming the leader of the opposition.
The BJP is yet to appoint the legislature party leader, who will act as the leader of opposition in the state assembly. Chouhan has gone on a vacation after the assembly election results and is likely to arrive tomorrow to take stock of things.
Meanwhile, a powerful section within the BJP does not want the party to leave the ground open for the Congress. Instead, it wants to challenge the grand old party as there are a lot of unhappy voices within the Congress after the cabinet formation that saw many senior leaders being left out. Kamal Nath inducted 28 MLAs as ministers, whereas seven positions of ministers have been kept vacant.
With just seven days remaining for the assembly session, rumours of MLAs switching sides are giving sleepless nights to top leaders of both the parties. However, Congress leader Digvijay Singh said "The BJP needs seven MLAs to topple the government, while we need just three to run the government. Without being said much, it is clear who is the master," he said.
