Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath resigned on Friday, hours before his government was to take the Supreme Court ordered trial of strength in the state assembly, paving the way for the new government of the BJP in the state.
Kamal Nath has put in his papers to Governor Lalji Tondon before the trust vote which was to be conducted in camera by 5PM in the evening. During his address to the press CM Kamal Nath leveled various charges against the BJP led Government at the Centre that they are murdering the democracy by not respecting to the will of the people and also that they are engaged in horse trading. He also said that the BJP conspired against the democratically elected Government of Madhya Pradesh by acting in connivance with the 22 MLAs of the Maharaja.
The Congress party made last mile efforts to reach to the MLAs held in the Bengaluru resort to try and connivance them to join the flock again but all efforts failed eventually. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh today conceded defeat by saying that they don’t have numbers in their favour to sail through the floor test and continue to be in the government.
Kamal Nath’s fate was sealed and it became clear when on Thursday night, Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker N K Prajapati accepted resignation of 16 Scindia-loyal MLAs who have been staying in Bengaluru. With this the strength of the Congress party in the House was reduced to 92 MLAs. The House strength too came down to 206 from 230. The BJP has 106 MLAs. A BJP MLA from Maihar, Narayan Tripathi has declared that he would vote for Congress. The Congress has the support of four independent legislators, one SP and two BSP MLAs. The floor test rang down the curtain over the 18-day political drama in the State.
Kamal Nath took oath as the Chief Minister on December 17 last year. There have been many hurdles before him during the past 15 months. The biggest one has, however, cropped up after Jyotiraditya Scindia’s crossover to the saffron party and resignation of 22 legislators of his faction