Amid the political turmoil in Madhya Pradesh, Assembly Speaker N.P. Prajapati has served notice on 13 rebel MLAs, asking them to appear before him immediately and attest that they had resigned of their own accord as legislators. Six of them in Bengaluru were served notice on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Mr. Prajapati told reporters, “Today, I am going to serve notice on another seven. The Speaker is bound by rules and regulations. And it is his duty to follow them. Accordingly, he is acting.”
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The Speaker has asked the MLAs to verify in person that they had submitted their resignations independently and under no duress.
The letters of 19 of the 22 rebel MLAs were carried by former BJP Minister Bhupendra Singh from a Bengaluru resort to the Speaker on Tuesday.
Sources in the Assembly said the Speaker would serve notice on the remaining six MLAs on Friday.
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Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha, in Bhopal to contain the situation, said, “It’s odd that the BJP has brought their letters, while the MLAs have not appeared themselves. They are being held hostage with their mobile phones off. Even Congress members can’t contact them.”
He said that if the BJP continued holding Congress MLAs “hostage”, the party might take legal recourse. “The possibility of a floor test will be there only upon their release. We may have to move the court, if not for anything else, then for their release. You can’t hold anyone hostage in our country.”
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Congress MLA and former Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot, who met the Speaker in the morning, said the irony was that on the one hand the BJP had brought their resignations, and on the other distanced itself from the developments, saying it was an internal matter of the Congress.
