Before approaching Guv, MP BJP MLAs to select leader on Saturday

Bhopal, March 20 (IANS) The BJP will hold a meeting of its party MLAs from Madhya Pradesh on Saturday in the state capital to select a leader and then approach the Governor to stake its claim to form government, party leaders said on Friday.

Congress Chief Minister Kamal Nath handed over his resignation to Governor Lalji Tandon today at 1.30 p.m, half-an-hour before the scheduled special session for the floor test on Friday. Tandon accepted his resignation.

The resignation obviated the floor test and therefore the special session that was to be held on the order of the Supreme Court. Speaker Narmada Prasad Prajapati then adjourned the House sine die.

A senior BJP leader related to the development told IANS, "The meeting of party legislators to select a leader will be held in Bhopal on Saturday."

He said the leader thus selected would then go to meet Governor to stake his claim to form the government. Following the crucial development in the state, the BJP sent its national vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe to look after the developments.

The BJP leader said the Governor will give time to the party leader to prove majority in the state assembly and form government in the state.

The BJP leader further said that Kamal Nath surrendered before the BJP without giving a fight. He said, "We expected Kamal Nath will face the floor test. But he surrendered and resigned without coming to the Assembly."

When asked about Kamal Nath's secretary claim of his being in touch with half-a-dozen party MLAs ready to resign in the state, he said, "If our party MLAs were in touch with the Congress, then the Chief Minister would have faced the floor test and they should have given us a tough fight in the floor test. But all their claims proved false," he said.

The day began with the news of BJP MLA Sharad Kol of Beohari resigning his membership of the House. With his resignation being accepted, the strength of the House came down further. Expectations in the Congress camp rose that the party would make more dents into the opposition.

The fall in number of legislators in the House was to the advantage of the BJP. The Congress which came to power after 15 years of struggle squandered the state in just 15 months. All the BJP legislators who had lodged themselves at a resort 50 kms away from Bhopal returned to the House only to be told no floor test was needed.

The Congress' bravado seen till Friday morning evaporated in the face of BJP's stubborn resistance. Kamal Nath on Friday made an impassioned speech to the media before proceeding to hand his resignation to the Governor and end an 18-day drama that was enacted across Haryana, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Bhopal.

"In my 40-year-long public life, I have practised politics of propriety and valued democratic norms with utmost sincerity. But what transpired in the last two weeks is a new chapter of devaluation of democratic values," his resignation letter read.

In the letter, he also congratulated the new chief minister of the state and said he will extend help in the development of the state.

The BJP has a majority with 104 MLAs in the House which is now reduced to 206 members after the resignation of 22 Congress rebels mostly from Jyotiraditya Scindia's camp. The overall strength of the House was 230 before the death of two members.

Kamal Nath told the media about his resignation after his party's tally came down to 92 and allies refused to come to the aid of the party.