The Madhya Pradesh Assembly Secretariat did not mention holding of a floor test on Monday in the List of Business it issued on Sunday night, PTI reported. Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon had ordered a floor test last week after 19 MLAs sent their resignations to him.
The absence of the mention in the List of Business makes the floor test unlikely, India Today reported on Monday. However, Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi, a former minister, told PTI: “Governor is the head of the state while Speaker is the head of the Assembly, who has all powers vested in him. A Speaker works as per his discretion and according to the rules and procedures of the House”.
Former Principal Secretary of the Assembly Bhagwan Dev Israni said the legislature comes out with the supplementary business list in the night or even in the morning of a session.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh Congress on Monday alleged that the rebel MLAs who are holed up in a hotel in Bengaluru are being “hypnotised and terrorised” and have been prevented from coming to the state, ANI reported. Madhya Pradesh minister PC Sharma also claimed that the legislators’ families are being harassed.
As many as 22 MLAs, loyalists of former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, had sent in their resignations last week, pushing the Kamal Nath-led government in the state to the brink. However, Chaturvedi said the governor should not have ordered a floor test without physically verifying the resignations of the 22 MLAs. “How can the governor be confident that the letters of these MLAs are genuine and are not written under any pressure?” he asked.
Tandon wrote to Nath late on Sunday asserting that the trust vote in the Assembly should be held by “raising of hands”, ANI reported. Tandon’s letter to Nath also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has told the governor that electronic voting system is unavailable in the Assembly.
On Sunday, ahead of the floor test, the Congress shifted all its remaining MLAs from a Jaipur resort to Bhopal. The MLAs were lodged at the resort amid fears of poaching by the BJP. However, the BJP MLAs, who have been staying at a hotel in Haryana, have not returned to Bhopal so far.
On Friday, Nath met the governor and told him that the BJP had indulged in “horse-trading” of legislators and had held 19 of them captive. He had also expressed readiness for a floor test.
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