BHOPAL: The Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh will face flor test at 2 pm on Friday March (20, 2020) as directed by the Supreme Court a day earlier. This was confirmed by the Assembly Secretariat a day after the Supreme Court set a 5 pm deadline in response to a BJP petition that wanted an immediate resolution of the issue.
The Congress government in the state has been on the brink of collapse since last week after 22 MLAs - loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP last week - resinged. Late on Thursday, the MP Asembly Speaker accepted the resignation of all 16 rebels Congress MLAs.
Ordering the session to be reconvened on March 20, the court said, "There will be only one agenda - whether the government enjoys strength. The state of uncertainty in Madhya Pradesh should be effectively resolved by a floor test".
Kamal Nath, whose government had a wafer-thin majority, has been insisting that he has the numbers. But the 10-day adjournment of the assembly, which reconvened on Monday for the budget session, prompted the BJP to take the case to the Supreme Court.
The BJP has contended that the government was delaying the trust vote in the name of coronavirus. The court, which remarked that a long-time frame before a trust vote leaves room for "horse-trading", named a date this evening after hearing the case for two days.
"The voting has to be done peacefully, by a show of hands. It has to be video-graphed and there has to be live telecast of the proceedings," the judges said.
Regarding the Congress contention that the 16 rebel MLAs - who the party alleges have been "kidnapped and kept captive" by the BJP - the court said if any of the MLAs wish to be present for the voting, security should be provided.
The rebel MLAs, who were also represented in court, insisted that they has resigned of their "free will" - a point they also made in a number of videos released on Wednesday.
The Congress and the BJP had locked horns in court on Monday - following power struggle in the state that has been going on for weeks. Dushyant Dave, who appeared for the Congress, had hit out at Governor Lalji Tandon, who had asked the Speaker for a floor test.
Calling the Governor's action "unconstitutional," he had accused him of constitutional impropriety. On Thursday, the court said the Governor was right in stepping in when the assembly was adjourned.
Following the verdict, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the BJP's three-time Chief Minister from the state, tweeted, "Satyamev Jayate" - meaning "Truth shall prevail".
Last week, with the Speaker's acceptance of the resignations of six ministers among the 22 rebel MLAs, following the Chief Minister's letter to the Governor, the Congress numbers have come down to 108. The party has the support of seven allied legislators.
Now that the resignations of all the MLAs had been accepted, the Congress's strength has come down to the new majority mark of 104, and the BJP, with 107 MLAs, can form government. The Madhya Pradesh assembly currently has 222 of 230 members and the majority mark is 112.
(With PTI inputs)
