Madhya Pradesh State Assembly adjourned till March 26 citing coronavirus fears
Bhopal/IBNS: Madhya Pradesh Assembly was adjourned on Monday by the Speaker amid ongoing coronavirus scare though a floor test to decide the fate of Kamal Nath government was likely to take place as it purportedly fell out of confidence after 22 MLAs left the Congress and sided with Jyotiraditya Scindia who joined BJP last week, media reports said.
The Budget session was also scheduled to start today.
Though former Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan of BJP had been accusing Kamal Nath of dodging the floor test, reports said that it was likely to be done by the raising of hands method.
MP Governor Lalji Tandon had told Chief Minister Kamal Nath that the BJP has asked for a floor test with this method as the electronic voting facility was not available in MP assembly.
The Governor had also appealed that due procedures be followed so that dignity of MP Assembly remained intact.
Earlier today, Chief Minister Kamal Nath came to the Assembly with his MLAs amid suspense over floor test. Soon, the house witnessed uprorarious scenes over the demand for floor test after which the Speaker NP Prajapati adjourned the house for 10 minutes.
At 11:41 am the Speaker adjourned the house till March 26 in view of coronavirus even as the opposition BJP continued to demand that the 15-month-old Congress government in MP proved it had the majority to be in power.
Reports had said the Speaker remained non-commital about allowing the floor test.
AP Singh, the state assembly’s principal secretary, was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times: “There is no intimation to the state assembly about a trust motion by the government or no-confidence motion by the opposition till now. However, as per rules intimation about such a motion can be given to the state assembly secretariat till one hour prior to the sitting of the House for the day,”
Crisis occurred in the political paradigm of the state when Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned from Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party last week.
After he moved out of Congress, 22 party MLAs loyal to him also resigned, leaving the Kamal Nath government in trouble.
After the acceptance of the rebel ministers' resignations, the strength of the 230-member MP Assembly has come down to 222, two seats were already vacant owing to the death of two MLAs.
The Congress has 108 MLAs in the House and the support of seven allied legislators.
If the resignations of the remaining rebel MLAs are accepted, the Congress's strength will be reduced to a minority and the BJP, with 107 MLAs, will become the largest party.
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