After Karnataka, Congress Keeps Eyes, Ears Open in MP

Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP’s) attempt to topple the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government in Karnataka failed at the last moment on Wednesday.

This is BJP’s second failed attempt in the past seven months to form a government in Karnataka. The party had planned to get about 12-15 Congress MLAs to resign and form the government. However, BJP's ‘Operation Lotus’ was botched by the Congress-JD(S) collision.  

The situation of the Madhya Pradesh government is similar to Karnataka, where the Congress fell two MLAs short of majority in the polls held in December and is running the government with the support of four independent and two Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs including and one from the Samajwadi Party.

In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs while BJP has 109.

Aware of the BJP’s tactics of toppling the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh and to avoid any political turmoil in the state, the state Congress is keeping its eyes and ears open.

The state Congress on Thursday said that BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ would not succeed in MP and is confident despite claims by saffron heavyweights and BJP’s National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava, their attempts to topple the government will fail.

“BJP’s MLAs are in touch with us, while their leaders are threatening the Congress government,” said state Congress media committee coordinator Narendra Saluja. “After 15 years in power in the state, the BJP is feeling like a fish out of water. It’s been BJP’s mentality to disrespect the people’s electoral verdict,” he said, adding that “the present Modi-Shah party has no trace of any ethic or principle. All they want is to remain in power, and when defeated, grab power by any means.”

The signals of a “collapsing” Congress government in MP were recently given out by senior BJP leaders. Last week, Vijayvargiya told a workers’ meeting in Indore that the Congress government was “running at the mercy of BJP”.

“The day the BJP high command in New Delhi even sneezes, we will turn the Congress government upside down in Madhya Pradesh,” he claimed.

A day later, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Gopal Bhargava, claimed that the Kamal Nath government would not last more than four months.

“No one knows who the real Chief Minister is — Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh or Jyotiraditya Scindia. There are 10 to 12 shadow Chief Ministers and such a government cannot last for long. Before the bungalows of ministers get painted and renovated, they will be out of it,” he said.

Responding to BJP leaders, Labour Minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia said, “The day, Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Guna MP Jyotiradiya Scindia and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh become active, 10 MLAs from BJP will break away.”

Dismissing BJP claims of toppling the government, he said: “BJP had also said it would get 200 plus seats. Did it?” The video of his statement went viral on the social media.

When questioned about the BJP leaders’ statements during a press conference, Nath said: “Let BJP bother about keeping its own house intact first.”

Saluja said Congress was aware of BJP’s designs and was on the alert. “BSP-SP and independent MLAs are very much with us. But yes, we have strategised from the beginning and Congress is alert because old habits die hard. We know that BJP will keep making attempts to poach,” he said.