By L S Herdenia
BHOPAL: The office of Secretariat of the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha was opened at midnight on April 3 to issue a notification disqualifying a Congress MLA from the membership of the House and declaring his seat vacant.
The move came hours after a Delhi court sentenced Rajendra Bharti, a Congress MLA from Datia constituency in the state, to three years imprisonment in a case of financial fraud. Though the court suspended the sentence for 60 days and allowed Bharti that much time to file an appeal in the High Court, he was disqualified without any delay, under a provision of the Representation of People’s Act.
The Congress has described the move as ‘hasty’ and ‘biased’ and has moved the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the notification. Congress leaders point out in sharp contrast to the undue haste in disqualifying Bharti, the Assembly Secretariat was sitting on the party’s request to disqualify its MLA Nirmala Sapre, who joined the BJP publicly in the presence of the chief minister Mohan Yadav and has been attending functions at the state BJP office.
Rajendra Bharti had won from the Datia constituency in the 2023 assembly general elections, defeating BJP heavyweight Narottam Mishra. It was an unexpected defeat for Mishra, especially since his party had done extremely well overall, winning 163 of the 230 seats.
For Mishra, it was a double whammy for he was hoping to be one of the frontrunners in the race for chief ministership post-elections. The judicial verdict in Bharti’s case has come as a godsend for him. He is hopeful that the bye-elections – that would inevitably follow Bharti’s disqualification within the next six months – will send him to the Vidhan Sabha. Having lost the chief ministerial race, he would be happy with the consolation prize of a ministerial berth.
Besides pressure from Mishra, another reason that seems to have prompted the Assembly Secretariat’s midnight notification is the impending Rajya Sabha elections.
Three Rajya Sabha seats from the state are set to fall vacant in June this year, and elections are expected this month or in May. Currently, two of these three seats are held by the BJP and one by the Congress. The Congress is represented by party veteran Digvijaya Singh, who has already said that he was not interested in a re-nomination, sparking a race among the hopefuls in the party.
Be that as it may, in the 230-member Vidhan Sabha, the number of MLAs needed to get a candidate elected stands at 58. The BJP, with a strength of 165 MLAs, can secure two seats without any trouble. The real contest lies in the third seat, which the BJP would love to snatch from the Congress.
The BJP can secure two seats outright. That would require 116 votes. After that, it will still have 47 surplus votes – just 11 short of the number needed for a third seat.
The Congress, on the other hand, has 65 members. However, its effective strength is already down to 63. Mukesh Malhotra, a Congress member from Vijaypur constituency, has got relief from the Supreme Court on his disqualification. But the top court has barred him from voting.
Nirmala Sapre, the Congress MLA from the Bina constituency, is facing disqualification proceedings under the anti-defection law for having joined the BJP. With Mukesh Malhotra’s inability to vote, the Congress is left with 63 votes – just five more than the required 58.
The opposition party’s woes don’t end here. Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, Hemant Katare has resigned from his post. Though officially he has attributed his decision to “family reasons”, there are speculations that the resignation might be a prequel to him jumping onto the BJP bandwagon.
Adding to the Congress’s problems is its MLA Abhijit Shah taking part in a “Hindu Sammelan” organised recently by the RSS in his constituency Timarni. Shah happens to be nephew of Vijay Shah, a member of the state cabinet and a senior BJP leader. Shah junior was felicitated by the organisers on stage and he even shared a video of the event on social media platforms. The message behind him – ‘Hindu unity is the solution to all problems’ – has only added to the unease within Congress ranks.
The promptness shown by the Assembly Secretariat in notifying Rajendra Bharti’s disqualification may have something to do with the BJP’s desire to ensure that its candidates are victorious on all the three Rajya Sabha seats.
The Congress is crying foul over the decision. The Assembly Speaker, Narendra Singh Tomar, however, has stated that the decision has been taken in accordance with the letter and spirit of the RPA and had nothing to do with politics. (IPA Service)
