The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati to quickly decide on resignations of 16 rebel Congress MLAs and adjourned the hearing for Thursday at 10.30 am.
The top court was hearing the petitions filed by BJP seeking an immediate floor test in Madhya Pradesh and the Congress which had opposed it.
During the hearing, Congress said the rebel MLAs should face re-election and then a floor test can be held. It also said that its MLAs are held captive in Bengaluru and blamed the BJP for “subverting democracy” in the state.
It also said that Governor Lalji Tandon’s direction to hold a floor test was “unconstitutional.” The BJP, meanwhile, said the Kamal Nath-led government has no “moral, legal, constitutional right” to stay in power.
The apex court on Tuesday had issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh government, Speaker and others over the issue after the BJP challenged the Speaker’s decision to adjourn the House till March 26 citing the coronavirus scare.
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Besides, Madhya Pradesh BJP has written a letter to Chief Election Commissioner saying, “Digvijaya Singh, who is a candidate for Rajya Sabha election has gone to Bengaluru along with others, to pressurise 16 MLAs to vote in his favour, violating Model Code of Conduct”.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who tried to meet rebel MLAs in Bengaluru today, said that the BJP is busy in toppling duly-elected governments.
“BJP is busy in toppling duly-elected governments. We had successfully thwarted plans to destabilize MP government but we were let down by Jyotiraditya Scindia who had a very successful career in Congress. We never expected that he would ditch us and join hands with BJP,” Singh said in a media briefing in Bengaluru.
The Congress also said that he has filed a plea in the Karnataka High Court, seeking permission to meet Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs who are putting up at Bengaluru.