BJP national vice president and three-time former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan has rejected allegations of BJP’s hand in the collapse of Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh and said the Congress should instead introspect on the reasons precipitating the “internal conflict” that led to the situation.
Chouhan’s rejoinder came within hours of Kamal Nath holding the BJP responsible for the fall of his government and accusing the party of using the lure of money for the purpose. He levelled the allegations while announcing his resignation as MP chief minister in recognition of his government’s inability to clear the Supreme Court mandated floor test on Friday afternoon precipitated by the rebellion of 22 party MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindhia who joined BJP last week.
“I proved my majority several times in the past 15 months. BJP ruled for 15 years whereas I got just 15 months. BJP conspired with a leader and 22 MLAs and they took the MLAs to Bengaluru,” Kamal Nath had said during the press conference and added that the BJP was particularly upset at his government’s concerted crackdown on “mafia” in the state.
Chouhan responded by saying that the BJP was not in the game of toppling governments.
“If a govt topples due to its own internal conflict then we can’t do anything. You can see that we were not in the game to form or topple a govt. They (Congress) should do some self introspection that what gave rise to such a situation,” Chouhan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
While Chouhan didn’t elaborate further, Scindhia’s resignation from the Congress was widely attributed to a flux in decision making at the top and sidelining of young leaders after Rahul Gandhi’s exit as the Congress president.
The BJP, however, hasn’t staked the claim to form the government in Madhya Pradesh yet. The party has 106 MLAs in the assembly with an effective strength of 206 and the majority mark is at 104 after the speaker accepted resignations of all 22 rebels and also that of a BJP MLA who had claimed to have resigned under duress.
After the resignations Congress’ strength in the state assembly has reduced to 92, far behind the half-way mark of 104 in the reduced majority of 206.
One independent MLA Pradeep Jaiswal has already announced support to the BJP. The state legislature has four independent MLAs and two MLAs from Bahujan Samaj Party and one from Samajwadi Party.
