MLAs 'abducted': Kamal Nath to Governor Lalji Tandon

New Delhi: Congress MLAs have been abducted and are held captive in Bengaluru, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath told Governor Lalji Tandon during a meeting at the Bhopal Raj Bhavan on Friday. On Nath’s request at the meeting, Tandon removed 6 ministers from his government. The ministers, Imarti Devi, Tulsi Silawat, Govind Singh Rajput, Mahendra Singh Sisodia, Pardyuman Singh Tomar and Prabhuram Chaudhary, are part of the group of around 20 MLAs who had travelled in a chartered plane to Bengaluru with Jyotiraditya Scindia who recently joined the BJP.

In a three-page letter to the governor, Nath gave the sequence of events and BJP’s several attempts to destabilise the state government. He said that the resignation of 19 Congress MLAs were handed over to the Speaker by BJP leaders and not the MLAs as per norm. “This demonstrates the complicity of BJP leaders in the entire conspiracy and illegal actions. The submission smacks of and violates provisions of the Constitution and legislative rules in force for submission and acceptance of resignations of MLAs,” the letter said. Nath said that he was ready for floor test. “As a responsible leader of the Indian National Congress, I invite and welcome a floor test of my government in the forthcoming session of the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly, already notified from March 16 2020, on a date fixed by the Speaker.” Speaker Narmada Prasad Prajapati had summoned the MLAs to appear before him on Friday and said no one else should accompany them during their appearance at his office.

Preparations were made from their arrival at the Bhopal airport and both Congress and BJP supporters had gathered there. The MLAs, however, never arrived. “I had given time to MLAs to meet me today and I waited for three hours. I will wait for them tomorrow to come and meet me,” Prajapati told journalists in Bhopal. In a related development, Scindia filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections in the presence of senior state BJP leaders such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, MP BJP president BD Sharma and Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot. Meeting of BJP leaders continued till late evening at Chouhan’s residence. The party is mulling on bringing the MLAs back depending on the date of the floor test.