India / Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath announces resignation ahead of floor test today

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath resigned from his post, hours before the Supreme Court-ordered trust vote deadline.

The veteran Congress leader, who was reading from a paper, said his MLAs were held hostage in Bengaluru.

“The truth will come out. People will not forgive them,” said Kamal Nath, attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who he has accused of engineering the crisis in the state.

“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,” said the Congress leader.

“BJP feared that the way our government was running they would never be able to get to power, hence they hatched a conspiracy against the government,” Kamal Nath added.

A meeting of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) was called at the Chief Minister’s residence in Bhopal ahead of the special session of Madhya assembly scheduled to start at 2 pm.

Kamal Nath was heading a minority government after having failed in his attempts to woo back 23 rebel Congress MLAs, including six ministers, who had resigned owing allegiance to BJP leader and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Late Thursday night, Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker N P Prajapati had accepted the resignations, plunging the Congress government into crisis. After the resignations Congress’ strength in the state assembly had reduced from 114 to 92, far behind the half-way mark of 104 in the reduced majority of 206.

Seven other MLAs - four independent, two from Bahujan Samaj Party and one from Samajwadi Party - have been supported the Congress government since its formation in December, 2018. But even if none of these seven MLAs switch sides to the BJP, the Congress’ tally in the Assemby would have reached only 99.

The Supreme Court had on Thursday ordered a floor test to be held in the state Assembly on Friday. A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said the floor test would be held by show of hands in accordance with the law and it should be completed by 5 pm on Friday.

The top court was hearing the petition filed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other BJP leaders seeking floor test in Madhya Pradesh Assembly claiming that the Congress government in the state has lost the majority.