In another development related to Madhya Pradesh political turmoil, Assembly Speaker N.P. Prajapati on Saturday accepted the resignations of six former ministers from the house.
The speaker said resignations of the six MLAs, who were dismissed as ministers by the governor on Friday, were accepted after their conduct was found “improper”.
The ex-ministers whose resignations were accepted with retrospective effect from March 10 are: Imarti Devi, Govind Singh Rajput, Tulsiram Silawat, Prabhuram Choudhary, Pradyumna Singh Tomar and Mahendra Singh Sisodia. All of them are considered to be hardcore supporters of senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia who recently switched camps from the Congress to the BJP.
The speaker's decision to accept the six resignations came just ahead of the crucial budget session of the Assembly slated from March 16. Prajapati, however, said no decision has yet been taken on 16 other MLAs who had also submitted their resignations to him.
Giving reason for his decision, the speaker said that the six MLAs had been given time twice—on March 13 and 14—to appear before him and confirm their resignations as the resignations were not given in person. However, the MLAs did not appear before him. Meanwhile, they were seen making statements on electronic media. This, he said, was an improper conduct and merited acceptance of their resignations.
The acceptance of six resignations brings down the strength of Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly to 222 (two of the total 230 seats were already vacant). The majority mark now thus stands at 112 and the Congress technically has the support of 115 MLAs, including four independents, two BSP and one SP MLAs.
The opposition BJP, claiming that the Congress-led government had lost majority after resignations of 22 MLAs, is pushing for immediate floor test. A delegation of the party met the governor on Saturday to make a demand in this regard. The BJP leaders said that a government in minority does not have the constitutional right to convene budget session or get the governor's address delivered.
The speaker, however, made it clear that according to the rules of the house, no other business could be transacted before the governor's customary address in the budget session. He also said that since there may be many occasions for division of votes during the session, separate floor test does not seem necessary.
Congress issues whip
Meanwhile, Legislative Affairs Minister and chief whip of Congress Legislature Party Govind Singh issued a three-line whip to all its MLAs to be present in the house during the budget session starting from March 16 and to vote in favour of the government for all necessary business transactions in the house.
Experts said the MLAs who decide to defy the whip by remaining absent or cross-voting could be declared ineligible as members by the speaker.
