After Congress-JDS govt falls in Karnataka, Kamal Nath says Madhya Pradesh MLAs 'not up for sale'

A day after the collapse of Congress-JDS alliance government in Karnataka, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday witnessed exchange of warnings between Chief Minister Kamal Nath and leader of opposition Gopal Bhargava.

Addressing the House, Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath asserted that his government would last full term and complete five years. He said that the Congress lawmakers in Madhya Pradesh Assembly were “not for sale”.

“This government will complete five-year term. We will work with full might and strength. This government will ensure development of Madhya Pradesh,” said Kamal Nath.

The Chief Minister was interrupted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gopal Bhargava, who said, that “if an order comes from number 1 and number 2, this government won’t survive for even one day”.

This did not go down well with the Chief Minister, who dared the BJP for a no-confidence motion in the Assembly.

The political bickering in the Assembly came a day after former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan claimed that there were internal conflicts in the ruling Congress in the state. He also suggested that all was not well with regard to the support of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) to the Congress.

The remark from the BJP strongman came shortly after HD Kumaraswamy-led Congress-JDS government lost trust vote in Karnataka Assembly. Speaking to news agency ANI, Chouhan said that “Congress leaders themselves have been responsible for fall of their governments”.

“We'll not cause the fall of govt here (Madhya Pradesh). Congress leaders themselves have been responsible for fall of their governments. There is an internal conflict in Congress and support of BSP-SP, if something happens to that then we can't do anything,” he said.

Congress leader and state minister Jitu Patwari hit back at the former chief minister, saying, “BJP has done everything to cause problems to us but this is Kamal Nath's government. not Kumaraswamy's. They will have to take seven births to do horse-trading in this government.”

The Congress leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has been up in arms against the BJP over the collapse of the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka. They have alleged that the loss in trust vote was a result of horse-trading by the BJP.