With no end to the clouds of crisis looming over his government, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath has written to Union home minister Amit Shah with the request to ensure the return of all 22 Congress rebels to Bhopal before the beginning of the budget session of the State assembly on March 16, said an agency report.
The MLAs are currently housed in a Karnataka resort protected by State police in the outskirts of Bengaluru.
The development follows the assembly speaker’s decision on Saturday to accept resignations of six Congress MLAs, who had earlier been sacked as ministers in the Kamal Nath government.
“I have accepted the resignations of Imarati Devi, Tulsi Silawat, Govind Singh Rajput, Mahendra Singh Sisodiya, Pradyumn Singh Tomar and Prabhuram Chaudhari,” Prajapti was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Speaker’s decision has effectively reduced the strength of the 228-member house to 222 and hit the strength of the Congress legislatures.
Before the rebellion, Congress had 114 members of its own and the support of four Independents along with two Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs and one from the Samajwadi Party. Two seats in the assembly are vacant.
These six MLAs were sacked from the State cabinet after they resigned en-masse along with 16 other party lawmakers in support of Jyotiraditya Scindia who quit the Congress to join the BJP.
Speaker NP Prajapati had issued notices to all the 22 rebels on Thursday asking them to appear in person on Friday to explain if they had quit voluntarily or were under pressure.
“I had given them time to appear in person on Friday and Saturday after their resignations came in for verification. But they did not turn up,” he was quoted as saying on Saturday
