FPJ EDIT: MP Government on the brink now?

They say there is no smoke without fire. Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Digvijay Singh claims to have noticed the smoke, alleging that the BJP was out to oust the party Chief Minister Kamal Nath. The charge is that the main Opposition party is in the process of buying at least eight MLAs from the ruling block to reduce the Congress Government to a minority. The 15-month-old Kamal Nath Government, without doubt, has enjoyed a rather precarious existence. Winning 114 seats in a House of 230 in the December 2018 poll, it exploited the confusion over leadership in the BJP which had won 107 seats. The independents and a few other MLAs who had won on the tickets of smaller parties were up for grabs. The Congress was quick off the blocks, snapping four Independents plus two BSP and one SP member while the State BJP failed to resolve the leadership question. At the time, flat-footedness of the BJP did cause a surprise, given that it had a friendly occupant in the Raj Bhavan and it was not unknown to turn such situations in its favour in similar cases in other States. It turns out that there was an internal challenge to the leadership of the then outgoing chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, thus ceding the advantage to the Congress in the MLA bazaar. Now, if you believe the same Singh, Narottam Mishra who had then thrown his hat in the ring for the chief minister’s crown, has since reconciled to the return of Chouhan as chief minister. And, as per Singh’s argument, the BJP has returned to muddy the situation in Bhopal’s political mandi. Expectedly, Chouhan and other BJP leaders have denied the charge of luring the MLAs with the offer of big money. But news reports all through Wednesday did suggest that a handful of MLAs, including, unsurprisingly four from the ruling Congress itself, were allegedly contemplating to desert the Kamal Nath Government. Some reports also said that one of the MLAs who had allegedly gone with the BJP leaders and was holed up in a hotel in Gurgaon had since been lured back to the Congress camp. Her name was Rambai, a suspended BSP MLA. Singh has as yet not clarified whether she had accepted any money, and if yes, how much, and whether she had returned to his side with or without any offer of money or ministership, but her return has been duly confirmed. Meanwhile, the wicked BJP is said to have flown four potential defectors to Bangalore, a safer haven under the keen eyes of Chief Minister B S Yeddiyurappa, not an amateur in playing the game of Aya Ram, Gaya Ram himself. For sure, the numbers in the Assembly are such that no government can feel secure from the threat of allurements by the Opposition and/or blackmail and arm-twisting by individual MLAs lending support from within or outside.The timing of the alleged attempt to destabilise the always precariously perched Kamal Nath Government is no less significant. Election for the three seats to the Rajya Sabha is due in the next few days. There are sharp differences within the Congress over renewing Singh’s term and on the nomination of Jyotiraditya Scindia since the latter had lost the May 2029 Lok Sabha poll. Nath in a bid to deny Scindia the RS nomination he desperately wants, had a close lieutenant float the name of Priyanka Gandhi for the RS. The inner fissures within the State Congress would certainly have their own impact on making the party government further vulnerable. Remember also that Scindia had only the other day threatened to hold a public protest against the failure of the Nath Government to keep a key election-time promise. Also recall Kaman Nath’s couldn’t-care-less retort. With its central leadership adrift, the Congress in Bhopal is left to sort out its own internal mess before it can fend off the alleged BJP attempt at poaching of its supporting MLAs. Lets us face it. There are no saints, no innocents in this business of government-making and government-breaking. Neither ideology nor morality matters. Power does. Fifteen months ago, the Congress exploited the BJP’s flat-footedness to form the government. Is it pay-back time now? We are not sure, though, if it is, it shouldn’t surprise anyone. For, that is politics, isn’t it?

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