BHOPAL : The sit-in staged by Congress MLAs for 3 days in the well of the House, ended before reaching any conclusion. Assembly Secretariat on Thursday night, citing rules, issued a notice to leader of opposition Satyadev Katare and instructed the MLAs to vacate the House. Besides notice, the Congress MLAs were also given warning implicitly that if they don’t vacate the House their membership may be in jeopardy. Congress MLAs feared of any big loss to them.
In the previous Assembly, the membership of former MLA Rakesh Singh and Kalpana Parulekar was cancelled on doing contempt of Speaker but restored later after they had made incessant entreaties. Both of them are now not in the Congress.
The hunger strike of Congress MLAs inside the House was declared illegal under the Assembly rule 271 (b) and permanent order 94(2) of Assembly Speaker. There is a provision of cancelling of membership of the MLAs in cases of violation.
Many Congress MLAs were also of the view that hunger strike should now be ended. They were of the opinion that hunger strike has proved successful in sending out its message amongst the farmers and hence there is no sense in stretching it any further.
Senior Cong MLAs maintain distance from sit-in
The senior Congress MLAs distanced themselves from sit-in and hunger strike. Former leader of opposition Ajay Singh, Govind Singh, Arif Aqueel, Ramnivas Rawat, KP Singh, Imarti Devi along with 20 MLAs did not even turn up during the period of hunger strike. Several MLAs were absent when hunger strike was ended.
Former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh said several MLAs could not come because of fasts of Navratri and prayer sessions and it does not mean that there is factionalism in the party. Singh, on the absence of senior leader Kamalnath, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Suresh Pachauri, said all of them exist in Digvijay Singh.
2 MLAs admitted to hospital
The hunger strike resulted in two Congress MLAs taking ill. MLAs namely Umang Singar and Madhu Bhagat were admitted to JP Hospital as their blood pressure lowered and they were feeling uneasiness.
Doctors maintain that the health of these two MLAs deteriorated as they did not eat anything but now both are keeping well.
