Four days ahead of the bypolls results, former chief minister and Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath on Friday accused the BJP of again engaging in horse trading activities out of fear of the big defeat that looms before them.
Saying that the people of the state will never accept a government formed through trading, Kamal Nath warned that if the BJP tries to again tarnish the honour of Madhya Pradesh and its people, the Congress will launch a severe agitation with support of people.
He said that some Congress and some independent MLAs in the state have told him that they have received fresh offers and allurements from the BJP.
Kamal Nath’s allegation came on a day when an independent MLA Surendra Singh ‘Shera Bhaiya’, BSP MLA Sanjeev Singh Kushwaha and BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi, who had in 2019 cross-voted in favour of the Congress, met BJP election management committee convener Bhupendra Singh at his residence.
The meetings of these MLAs with Singh is being looked upon with interest and considered a move of the ruling party to doubly ensure its majority in the house before the bypolls result are in.
The BJP needs to win only eight of the 28 seats up for the bypolls to get to the majority mark as it has 107 MLAs of its own. Some of the seven non-Congress opposition MLAs extended support to the BJP after it formed the government in March this year. On Friday, BSP MLA Kushwaha reiterated they (two BSP MLAs including Rambai Parihar) will continue to support the BJP.
However, the confidence shown by the Congress that it will win all or maximum of the 28 seats in the bypolls has probably led the BJP to work out an alternative plan in case some major upheavals take place following the results, political watchers say.
Kamal Nath said the BJP talks of politics of uprightness, but the present day BJP is far away from any uprightness as proven in March 2020 and that they will be thrown out after the bypolls results. “Now with defeat staring in their face after the bypolls voting, they are again trying to engage in illegal politics and bidding to further tarnish the image of Madhya Pradesh. But we and the people will allow this under no circumstances,” he said.
Responding to the accusations of the ex-CM, the chief spokesman of the BJP, Deepak Vijayvargiya said that the party is comfortably placed in the Assembly (number wise) and after the win of the ex-Congress MLAs who have contested the bypolls on BJP tickets, the majority will only surge.
He added that several Congress MLAs are dissatisfied with the present circumstances in the party and might resign. “But this is their internal problem. Rattled at the situation, Congress leaders including Kamal Nath are talking baseless things. They had better manage their own house,” the spokesman said.
