Kamal Nath calls on Governor, says ready for a no-trust motion but he cannot be forced to hold trust vote 

Political drama in Madhya Pradesh continued on Monday, when the Governor Lalji Tandon ‘addressed’ the Assembly and later in the day wrote yet another letter to the chief minister, directing him to prove his majority in a floor test on Tuesday itself.

Late on Monday evening the chief minister arrived at the Raj Bhavan and spent half an hour with the Governor. After coming out of the Raj Bhavan, he told waiting mediamen that his government was prepared to face a no-trust motion in the House. He had conveyed to the Governor that the Government had no reason to seek a trust vote.

The Governor had earlier written to the CM asking for a floor test on Monday. But soon after the Governor left the Assembly, after reading the first and the last sentence of the address approved by the cabinet, the Speaker adjourned the House till March 26, the day fixed for voting by MLAs in the election for the Rajya Sabha.

In the morning, shortly before the Governor was to start for the Vidhan Sabha at 10.50 am, he received a letter from the chief minister calling his letter ordering a trust vote unconstitutional.

"It does not lie within the domain of the Governor to interfere with the functions of the Speaker," said the Chief Minister.

“The Governor cannot expect the Speaker to act in the manner in which the Governor thinks constitutionally appropriate. Both the Governor and the Speaker have their own independent constitutional responsibilities,” wrote the chief minister.

The Governor took offence to the language used by the CM in his letter and alleged, in his response, that the CM was evading the floor-test. The CM had cited pronouncements of the Supreme Court that were not relevant in the present context, the Governor said.

“It is regrettable that instead of seeking the trust vote, you have responded through a letter and have expressed inability or avoided the floor test. I request you to take the test tomorrow (March 17) failing which it will be assumed you have lost majority,” the Governor added.

Curiously, in his first letter to the chief minister the Governor had exhorted him to take the floor-test and had added that ‘prima-facie the Government seemed to have the majority’. The Governor also took the liberty of prescribing the method of holding the floor-test.

Since the Vidhan Sabha is not quipped with the push-button voting system, the Governor specified that no other method should be used expect by raising hands. “The governor is doing everything short of sitting on the Speaker’s chair,” quipped a Congress MLA.

Bharatiya Janata Party rushed to the Supreme Court demanding directions for an immediate floor-test. The court is expected to hear the case on Tuesday. But in the meanwhile the Governor, who received BJP MLAs at the Raj Bhavan after the House was adjourned, dashed off his second letter asking the CM to hold the floor test on Tuesday, failing which the government would be deemed to have lost its majority, the letter added.

The office of the Speaker N.P. Prajapati told newsmen that the Speaker was not aware of the Governor’s letter and it was for the Chief Minister to reply to it. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath had responded to the Governor’s initial missive with a six-page reply in which he alleged that holding the floor test would be undemocratic so long as a group of MLAs were held hostage by the BJP.

Sources in the BJP office pointed out that the Speaker was entitled to ask each MLA to personally hand over his/her resignation to him. It is also incumbent for the Speaker to enquire under what circumstances they had resigned, whether they were indeed held hostage of if they had been offered allurements of any kind.

They also let out that the Governor, by reading out the address prepared by the state Government today, had indirectly acknowledged that the Government enjoyed the majority support and that it is a legitimate government. The Governor cannot now turn around and say that the Government is in a minority without a floor test.

The Speaker’s office also maintained that Assembly sessions of Rajasthan, Odisha, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra have been adjourned during the past few days because of concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic. It was therefore not unusual for the House to be adjourned for the next 10 days.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath dared the BJP to bring a no-confidence motion against his government in the House.

BJP MLAs meanwhile were flown back to New Delhi on Monday after the Assembly was adjourned.