CM Kamal Nath steps down, MP governor accepts resignation
BHOPAL : Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon on Friday accepted the resignation of Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Kamal Nath had submitted his resignation to the governor at the Raj Bhawan here around 1 pm on Friday.
“The governor accepted the resignation of Kamal Nath and asked him to continue as the caretaker chief minister till the new CM takes charge,” a Raj Bhawan official told PTI.
He resigned from his post just a few hours before the scheduled time for the trust vote in the Assembly after accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of betraying the people’s mandate and triggering a political crisis in the Congress-ruled state.
Kamal Nath’s move of stepping down as the CM came a day after the Supreme Court directed that a floor test be conducted in Madhya Pradesh Assembly to prove that the Congress government led by him enjoys majority in the House following the rebellion by 22 MLAs of his party.
The Kamal Nath government had been teetering on the brink of a collapse after 22 Congress MLAs rebelled and resigned in support of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who had quit the grand old party and joined the BJP.
Addressing a press conference in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, Kamal Nath said, “The people of this country can see the truth behind the incident where MLAs are being held hostage in Bengaluru. The truth will come out. People will not forgive BJP which has been trying every trick to bring down my 15-month old government.
BJP leaders could not digest the development work and people-friendly measure taken by my government during the last 15 months.” The veteran Congres leader accused the BJP of “murdering democracy” and plotting to pull down his government from the day he took oath on December 17, 2018, after the Congress won 114 seats in the 230-member MP Assembly.
The BJP emerged as the second-largest party with 109 legislators. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party and Independents won two, one and four seats respectively and all of them supported the Congress which formed the government.
Mr Nath had earlier called a meeting of the MP Congress Legislature Party (CLP) started at his residence where it is believed that he was told by the party high command to resign as his government had lost majority after the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs.
Hours ahead of the floor test, Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati had accepted the resignations of 16 rebel Congress MLAs on Thursday night.
”Now I have also accepted the resignation of Sharad Kol (BJP MLA). He had earlier said that he was forcefully made to resign but after looking at his documents and that he didn’t meet me personally, it didn’t seem like that,” Prajapati told reporters.
The apex court had on Thursday ordered the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker to conduct a floor test by 5 pm on Friday, leaving the fate of the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government hanging by a thread after the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs.
Kamal-Nath-meets-Governor-seeks-floor-testWith the resignation of 16 more MLAs, the strength of Congress had come down to 92 from 108. Earlier, six ministers had resigned which brought down the ruling party’s strength from 114 to 108.
(Bureau Report with Agency Inputs)
