No Floor Test Today As Madhya Pradesh Assembly Adjourned Till March 26

In his customary address to the assembly, Governor Lalji Tandon urged all members of the house to uphold Parliamentary traditions and responsibilities in peaceful manner.

Outlook Web Bureau

Updated on: 16 March 2020 1:26 pm

Madhya Pradesh Assembly speaker NP Prajapati on Monday adjourned the house till March 26, the date for the highly anticipated Rajya Sabha polls for three seats of the state.

Minutes earlier, in his customary address to the assembly, Governor Lalji Tandon urged all members of the house to uphold Parliamentary traditions and responsibilities in a peaceful manner. Surprisingly, he finished his address in under a minute and left the house.

Earlier in the day, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath wrote a letter to Governor Lalji Tandon and said that conducting a floor test today will be unconstitutional and undemocratic since 22 rebel Congress MLAs are still held captive in Karnataka.

According to sources, rebel Congress MLAs were supposed to be brought to Bhopal via Delhi on Saturday and flights had been chartered for the same. A senior state BJP leader had also been deputed to receive the MLAs at the Bhopal airport and escort them to a hotel. However, the plan was dropped at the last minute.

The Congress is adamant that all rebels should be brought to Bhopal for the floor test since they are still members of the Assembly.

With the suspense of floor test looming large, MLAs of the Congress and BJP arrived at the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in Bhopal for the first day of the Budget session.

Many legislators could be seen wearing protecting masks in view of the novel coronavirus scare.

Prominent members who reached the House included Nath, BJP vice president and MLA Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava and others.

The Assembly session began after recitation of Vande Mataram. MLAs also raised slogans of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.

The MLAs of the BJP reached the Assembly in three separate buses along with senior party leaders. They had landed in Bhopal from Manesar in Haryana at around 2 am.

The governor on Saturday night directed the chief minister to seek a trust vote in view of 22 MLAs of the ruling Congress resigning from the party on March 10 after Gwalior royal Jyotiraditya Scindia decided to quit the party and join the BJP. Since then, the Nath government has been walking on thin ice and could fall anytime.