As Congress firefighting to tide over a crisis in the assembly appeared almost successful, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday vehemently attacked the opposition BJP.
The chief minister said he had never imagined that greed of power will cause the party to sink morally to such a low that it would start disrespecting even the democratic decision of people of the state. In an open letter to the people of the state, Kamal Nath also said the BJP's indecent action was indeed an attempt stain the illustrious history and rich heritage of Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, independent MLA Surendra Singh alias Shera, who was in Bengaluru for the past five days along with his family, returned to Bhopal and met Kamal Nath at CM House on Saturday morning. Shera was photographed with the chief minister, making a victory sign.
Later, speaking to the reporters, Shera said his support was with Kamal Nath and the Congress. The MLA alleged that attempts were made to prevent him from reaching Bhopal.
However, three Congress MLAs—Hardeep Singh Dang who reportedly resigned from his post, Bisahulal Sahu and Raghuraj Kansana—continue to remain 'missing'. They are said to be cooped up in BJP-ruled Karnataka.
Sources, however, said they too are in touch with CM Kamal Nath and might return to Bhopal soon.
There were also rumours again that BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi had met the chief minister on Saturday morning. Tripathi had earlier voted in support of the Congress for a bill.
Going by the developments over the past two days, political watchers feel that the firefighting attempts by the Congress, led by Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, have been more or less successful, despite reports of resignation of Congress MLA Dang.
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This is because with two vacant seats, the majority mark in the 230-member state assembly has come down to 114. The Congress has had the support of 121 members earlier. If resignation of MLA Dang is confirmed officially, his membership in the house will terminate. Even with two 'missing' MLAs, the Congress will still have the support of 117 MLAs (121 minus one deceased, one resignation, two 'missing'). This is comfortably more than 114 majority mark. The BJP has 107 MLAs at present.
Besides, there are reported attempts by the Congress to win over some BJP MLAs to turn the tables on the opposition and consolidate the government. Overall, political watchers say, the Congress government looks safe as of now.
Kamal Nath and other senior leaders, including Digvijaya Singh, have been on firefighting mode since Tuesday after 10 MLAs were found to have gathered in a hotel in Manesar in Haryana. The Congress alleged that opposition BJP was attempting horsetrading to pull down the government and leaders like former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narottam Mishra offered crores of money and ministerial berths to Congress and supporting MLAs in the state.
A day later, six MLAs, including three of Congress, two of BSP and one of SP, were brought back to Bhopal. They renewed their support to Kamal Nath led government.
The open letter
In his open letter, the chief minister said he was astonished as to how and where the saffron party got the inspiration to initiate such an indecent action. "Are these people inspired by the mafia whom I intend to destroy? Are they under influence of these adulterers, who I have taken oath to free Madhya Pradesh from? Have they attempted this conspiracy with support of those sand mafia and extortion mafia who have been severely impacted by my war against them and that has led to five times increase in revenue of the state?”
At the end of the open letter, Kamal Nath made a request to the BJP not to display the hunger for power in a manner that people lose trust in democracy. He has also prayed to Lord Hanuman to give dignity, restraint and strength of character to the BJP leaders so that the ruling party and opposition could together work to fulfill the dream of progress of the state.
Kamal Nath also tweeted famous lines of Harivansh Rai Bachchan's poem 'Agnipath' on Saturday, which talk of taking oath never to stop, look back or get tired while walking the 'path of fire'.
Resort of BJP MLA razed
Meanwhile, the Umaria district administration on Saturday razed a major portion of a resort in Bandhavgarh, owned by BJP MLA Sanjay Pathak. Digvijaya Singh had named Pathak among five BJP leaders involved in the horsetrading attempt. The MLA's chartered plane was allegedly used to ferry the 10 MLAs to Delhi. There were rumours that Pathak had met the chief minister on Tuesday amid speculations of him switching sides, but the MLA denied this and pledged his allegiance to BJP. He claimed that there were attempts to get him killed. BJP ex-minister Vishwas Sarang too had made similar allegations.
