MP political crisis: SC refuses to meet rebel Congress MLAs, defers hearing till Thursday

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 18, 2020) refused to meet the rebel Congress MLAs and deferred the hearing on former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s plea demanding floor test in the state assembly till Thursday. During the hearing, the ruling Congress said that a probe is required on the resignations submitted to Speaker NP Prajapati by the BJP leaders on behalf of rebel Congress MLAs. 

Appearing for the Congress party in the Supreme Court, advocate Dushyant Dave said that resignations of the ruling alliance MLAs were extracted by force and coercion and that they did not act as per their free will.

Dave further argued that the public of Madhya Pradesh trusted Congress and the single largest party had won the vote of confidence that day. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Shivraj, offered to produce all 16 rebel MLAs in judges’ chamber. The court, however, categorically said “no”. 

Rohatgi then said Registrar General of Karnataka HC could go and meet rebel MLAs on Thursday and video record everything. But the top court refused to send the Registrar-General to meet rebel MLAs and deferred hearing for 10.30 am. 

The also refused to accept the offer of rebel Congress MLAs to meet them, saying it would not be appropriate. The bench was hearing cross petitions filed by former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Congress on the ongoing political crisis in the state after 22 rebel MLAs of the ruling combine purportedly offered to resign.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress Legislature party (MPCLP) had on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre and the BJP-led Karnataka government to grant it access to communicate with its rebel MLAs allegedly kept at Bengaluru.

On Saturday night, Tandon wrote to Nath asking him to seek a trust vote in the Assembly soon after the Governor's address on Monday, saying his government was in minority. After the Speaker accepted the resignation of six Congress MLAs on Saturday, the party now has 108 legislators.

These include 16 rebel legislators who have also put in their papers but their resignations are yet to be accepted. The BJP has 107 seats in the House, which now has an effective strength of 222, with the majority mark being 112.