BHOPAL: The Kamal Nath-led Congress government has unceremoniously made its exit in the power tussle with the BJP, which had weaned away the breakaway Congress faction of Jyotiraditya Scindia.
The Congress had come to power after 15 years of struggle, but the party lost its government within 15 months of its formation.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath put in his papers without taking the floor test, as ordered by the Supreme Court.Once the Speaker had accepted the resignation of the 16 rebel legislators, Nath’s ouster was a foregone conclusion as the number of party MLAs in the House had diminished to 92.
The ruling party was reduced to a rag-tag minority, and instead of facing the House, Nath chose to quit. With that, the 19-day-old political drama, triggered by the resignation of Scindia from the Congress and that of 22 legislators of his faction, has come to an end.
On March 2, some of the Congress rebels flew to Bengaluru from Delhi, heightening the tension in the Nath camp. On March 9, all legislators of the Scindia faction also reached Bengaluru, and it was only after that, the tug of war between the BJP and the Congress intensified.Speaker NP Prajapati informed the House about the resignation of Nath, saying there was no need to hold a floor test. Then, he put off the House proceedings sine die.
Before putting in his papers, Nath ripped into his former colleague Scindia. He said an ambitious, power-hungry ‘Maharaj’, rejected by voters, and his 22 greedy legislators who were influenced by him and who were lured by the BJP, had brought down a democratically elected government.
Digvijay responsible, says Chouhan: Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said though Kamal Nath was the chief minister, Digvijaya Singh had remote-controlled the government.
It was because of Singh that the Congress government fell, Chouhan said, adding that the BJP could have formed the government in December 2018 itself.
