MP crisis LIVE: Congress should introspect, says Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Friday said he would submit his resignation to the Governor Lalji Tandon today, after his government fell short of the majority mark. Before announcing his resignation, he hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for plotting against him.
The Supreme Court had on Thursday ordered chief minister Kamal Nath-led Congress government to face floor test in the MP Vidhan Sabha by today. As per the apex court's order, the trust vote has been mentioned in Madhya Pradesh Assembly's list of business for today at 2 pm. Ahead of the floor test, Kamal Nath addressed media to announce his resignation.
The Congress-led government had been pushed to the brink following of former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. The state assembly speaker Narmada Prasad Prajapati late Thursday night accepted the resignations of the remaining 16 rebel Congress MLAs who have been in Bengaluru since March 9.
With this, the resignations of all 22 MLAs in Scindia's camp brings down the total strength of the assembly to 206 where the ruling Congress with 92 members and seven allied MLAs -- at least five short of a simple majority of 104. The opposition BJP with 107 MLAs is three more than the simple majority.
Earlier, the state legislative Assembly had been adjourned until March 26 in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
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05:55 PM
BSP, SP, Independent MLAs to support BJP in MP: Party leader
Moments after the Kamal Nath government fell in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, a senior BJP leader said Independent MLAs as well those from BSP and SP had shifted their support to the saffron party.

The BSP has two members in the House, the SP one and there are four Independents, all of whom were supporting the Congress government in the state.
05:44 PM
Minister in Kamal Nath govt offers support to new dispensation
An Independent MP MLA who was a minister in the Kamal Nath government, said he would extend support to the new dispensation in the state to ensure the development of his constituency.

The Waraseoni MLA and mining minister in the Nath government Pradeep Jaiswal said, "Today is the last day of the (Nath) government. I was elected thrice on a Congress ticket but didn't get a party ticket for the fourth time. I was not given a ticket by the Congress but people collected funds to get me elected."

"I had earlier said I will support as long as there is a Kamal Nath government in the state...I don't have any option now. I will extend support to the new government to ensure development of my constituency," Jaiswal said, PTI reported.
03:57 PM
Congress should do some introspection: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
"If a govt topples due to their own internal conflict then we can't do anything. You can see that we were not in the game to form or topple a govt. They (Congress) should do some self introspection that what gave rise to such situation.": Shivraj Singh Chouhan
03:45 PM
What happened in MP is blatant killing of democracy in broad day light: Gehlot
Ashok Gehlot
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@ashokgehlot51
What we have witnessed today in #MadhyaPradesh is a blatant killing of Democracy in broad day light. Dismantling the democratically elected govt for the lust of power has become a habit for the BJP.
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12:39 PM - Mar 20, 2020
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03:42 PM
Kamal Nath drops 'Chief Minister' from his Twitter bio
03:00 PM
MP Governor accepts Kamal Nath's resignation
Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon on Friday accepted the resignation of Chief Minister Kamal Nath.

Nath had submitted his resignation to the governor at the Raj Bhawan here around 1 pm on Friday.

"The governor accepted the resignation of Kamal Nath and asked him to continue as the caretaker chief minister till the new CM takes charge," a Raj Bhawan official said.
02:58 PM
BJP MLAs show victory sign at the state assembly in Bhopal
ANI
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@ANI
#MadhyaPradesh: BJP MLAs show victory sign at the state Assembly in Bhopal.
Congress' Kamal Nath has resigned as the Chief Minister of the state, ahead of the floor test which was to take place at the state Assembly today.
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2:51 PM - Mar 20, 2020
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02:52 PM
Kamal Nath, in his resignation letter, states that "All that has happened in Madhya Pradesh in the last two weeks is a new chapter in the weakening of democratic principles."
02:47 PM
Democracy defeated by 'hotel diplomacy': Congress
The Congress on Friday said democracy has been defeated by "hotel diplomacy" in Madhya Pradesh, after Kamal Nath resigned as the state chief minister.

Over 15 months after taking over, Nath resigned from the top post. The resignation came a day after the Supreme Court ordered the state assembly Speaker to conduct a floor test by 5 pm on Friday.


"Today democracy (was) defeated by hotel diplomacy," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said on Twitter.

Abhishek Singhvi
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@DrAMSinghvi
Today democracy defeated by hotel diplomacy . #MadhyaPradesh #KamalnathResign
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1:02 PM - Mar 20, 2020
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02:44 PM
A victory for voters, says Jyotiraditya Scindia on Kamal Nath's resignation
Reacting to MP CM Kamal Nath's resignation, former Cong leader Jyotiraditya says

Jyotiraditya M. Scindia
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@JM_Scindia
मध्य प्रदेश में आज जनता की जीत हुई है। मेरा सदैव ये मानना रहा है कि राजनीति जनसेवा का माध्यम होना चाहिए, लेकिन प्रदेश सरकार इस रास्ते से भटक गई थी। सच्चाई की फिर विजय हुई है। सत्यमेवजयते।
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1:06 PM - Mar 20, 2020
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PM-led panel appoints IPS officer Rishi Kumar Shukla as new CBI chief

Former Madhya Pradesh Police chief Rishi Kumar Shukla was on Saturday appointed the chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a fixed tenure of two years, according to a Personnel Ministry order.

Shukla, a 1983-batch IPS officer, is at present chairman of Madhya Pradesh Police Housing Corporation in Bhopal.
He has been appointed in place of Alok Kumar Verma, who was removed from the post of CBI Director on January 10.

Shukla was recently transferred from the post of Director General of Madhya Pradesh Police to the police housing corporation.
The appointment comes following two meeting of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee held on January 24 and February 1.
Shukla's name was short-listed during the second meeting of the selection committee held on Friday.
The development assumes significance as on Friday, the Supreme Court had said it was "averse" to the arrangement of an interim CBI Director and the Centre should "immediately" appoint a regular chief of the probe agency.
The post of CBI Director is "sensitive" and "important", and it is not good to keep an interim director of the agency for longer period, the top court observed and sought to know as to why the government has not made the appointment yet.
The post of the CBI chief has been lying vacant since January 10 after the unceremonious exit of Verma, who had been engaged in a bitter fight with Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana over corruption charges.
Both Verma and Asthana had accused each other of corruption.
M Nageswara Rao has been working as the interim CBI chief after Verma's ouster.
Friday's meeting was held at the prime minister's residence -- that lasted for over an hour -- and attended by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the leader of the largest opposition party in Lok Sabha.
Verma, after being removed from the post of CBI director by the PM-led panel, was named as the Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards -- a less significant portfolio.
Verma did not accept the offer and wrote to the government, saying he should be considered as deemed superannuated as he had completed 60 years age of superannuation on July 31, 2017.
He had taken over as the CBI chief on February 1, 2017 for a fixed two-year tenure that ended Thursday.

Madhya Pradesh announces incentives for wheat and chana farmers

To woo farmers ahead of state elections, the Madhya Pradesh government has announced a special incentive of Rs 265 per quintal on wheat and Rs 100 per quintal for chana, masoor and mustard sold in the 2018 rabi marketing season. This is in addition to the Rs 200 per quintal incentive announced for wheat and paddy sold in the previous kharif and rabi marketing seasons.
According to an official order, wheat and other crops including chana, mustard and masoor, will be eligible for the cash incentive irrespective of the rate at which it is sold in the market.

“All crops, whether sold below the minimum support price (MSP) or above it — at mandis or otherwise — will be eligible for the incentive,” a senior official said.
The state hasn’t termed the scheme as a bonus and hence it won’t fall within the ambit of a central order, which curbs state governments from declaring a bonus over MSP.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in a recent interview to Business Standard, had said that as farmers in Madhya Pradesh suffered due to drought and low rains in some parts and also to encourage them to grow more, the state had formulated a special package which didn’t have any link with the MSP lead procurement process.
The order comes days after the Centre directed its agencies to purchase 390,400 tonnes of mustard and 136,808 tonnes of masoor from Madhya Pradesh following the state’s decision to remove the two commodities along with gram from the price deficiency payment scheme (Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana).
For direct purchase of gram or chana, which has seen a massive crash in prices in the past few days due to a bumper harvest, an official order is expected in the coming few days.
Madhya Pradesh which goes to the polls in the next few months, has faced a series of farmers’ agitations in the past few years due to crashing prices. The protests turned violent in June last year, when six farmers were killed in police firing.

Advantage Congress or BJP? Making sense of MP, Odisha by-election results

On the face of it, results to the three assembly by-elections, two in Madhya Pradesh and one in Odisha, announced on Wednesday, weren’t good news for the Congress.
But a closer look suggests the results were also a jolt to the preparations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, scheduled for late November, and Odisha assembly polls, which are slated to take place simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in April-May, 2019.
The results of the Madhya Pradesh by-elections also underlined the importance of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had polled substantial votes in these two seats in 2013. As the Mayawati-led party usually does, the BSP didn’t field candidates in the by-elections. The Aam Aadmi Party is also likely to field candidates in the upcoming assembly polls.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress just about managed to retain the Mungaoli assembly seat. It won the Kolaras seat a bit more comfortably.
In Odisha, the Congress not only lost the Bijepur assembly seat to the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), but its candidate was a poor third. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate came in second, reinforcing the trend in Odisha politics of the BJP replacing the Congress as the main opposition party in the state.
The BJD’s victory margin of 41,933 votes over the BJP candidate was comprehensive, and indicates the continuing popularity of the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The election campaign was marred by a shoe throwing incident on Patnaik, which evoked much sympathy for the leader.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress won the Mungaoli assembly seat by a slim margin of 2,124 votes. In the 2013 assembly elections, the Congress candidate had polled 50.74 per cent votes and won with a margin of 20,719 votes over his BJP rival.
In the bypoll, Congress’s Brajendra Singh Yadav got 70,808 votes while the BJP candidate, Baisahab Yadav, bagged 68,684.
In 2013, the Congress candidate had polled 70,520 votes and BJP’s 49,801, with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate having polled 12,063 votes.
In Kolaras assembly constituency, the Congress candidate won by 8,083 votes. In 2013, the Congress candidate had defeated the BJP’s by a margin of nearly 25,000 votes. In Kolaras, the BSP candidate had got 23,920 votes in 2013. The BSP didn’t contest the by-elections.
Both Kolaras and Mungaoli are primarily rural constituencies. In the run up to the by-elections, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had reached out to the farmers. He had also spent several days campaigning in the two seats. The Congress win in the two seats could bolster Scindia’s claim to be declared the chief ministerial face of his party for the assembly elections later this year.
The Congress party is trying to reach out to the BSP for an electoral understanding for the Madhya Pradesh assembly election.

Madhya Pradesh bypolls: Voting starts; It's BJP's Chouhan vs Cong's Scindia

Voting for the Madhya Pradesh by-elections in the assembly constituencies of Kolaras and Mungaoli has begun on Saturday and is set to see a direct face-off between Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia.
A total of 22 candidates are in the fray in Kolaras while 13 are trying their luck in Mungaoli. The results will be announced on 28 February. The total number of voters in the two constituencies are 2,44,457 (Kolaras) and 1,91,009 (Mungaoli).
Several people have complained that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) are not functioning properly, forcing them to long queues to cast their votes.
“I have been standing in queue for the past one hour, voting has not started since the EVM is not working,” said one local, according to news agency ANI.
Madhya Pradesh by-polls EVM at Kolaras' booth number 57 is currently not working, people wait outside to cast their votes. Photo: ANI
Congress may have a slight edge over Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) as the constituencies, which fall in the Guna Lok Sabha constituency of Congress leader Scindia, were won by the grand old party's candidates in 2013. The intensified campaigning came to an end on Thursday.
The Madhya Pradesh by-elections, scheduled for February 24 in the assembly constituencies of Kolaras and Mungaoli, will see a direct face-off between Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia.
So, while the Congress wants to build on its show in the Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP wants to maintain Chouhans stature in the state. A win in either of the seats would help Chouhan forget his defeat in the Chitrakoot assembly by-election in November to Congress, a seat that the latter retained with an impressive margin of over 14,000 votes.
Why all this hullabaloo over two seats when the MLAs will be in the assembly for not more than seven months?
The end-game result of the polls at Mungaoli and Kolaras will be keenly watched, as it would set the general mood of the election saga in Madhya Pradesh, which is going to polls later this year.
A BJP defeat in the by-polls could give a handle to Chouhan's detractors within the party to demand his replacement on the ground of anti-incumbency.
And if Scindia loses, it will a setback for a leader trying to set in order the faction-ridden Congress unit.
CM Chouhan upped the ante to woo voters
Chouhan, keen to snatch the two seats from the Congress, had recently announced a slew of measures for the people of the region, including a Rs 1,000 monthly assistance for tackling malnutrition among Saharia tribals, who form a major chunk of the population in Kolaras and Mungaoli.
His tone can be seen in his election speeches. “Give us five months, the people of the region would see development in five years,” reported ANI. He further went on to say, “If we fail, don’t vote for us again."
In Bhopal, the CM announced a bonus of Rs 200 per quintal over the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and paddy farmers. This was seen in view of the massive farmers’ agitation in Madhya Pradesh.
BJP even tried to pit Scindia against Scindia by fielding Jyotiraditya’s aunt Yashodhara Raje on February 5, reported The Times of India. However, the move backfired when Raje allegedly Raje allegedly threatened voters to cut off their water supply if they don’t vote for BJP. The Election Commission served her a notice for this and censured her for violating the model code of conduct ahead of the upcoming by-polls in the state.
"Only BJP has brought development in Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress party did nothing for the public," the Chief Minister said during his road show.
Chouhan's road show covered at least 40 villages in Mungaoli.
Scindia left no stone unturned either
Aware of the high stakes involved, the 47-year-old royal has been extensively touring the two seats to ward off the saffron challenge.
Leaving no stone unturned to sweep the upcoming by-polls in the state, the Congress leader asked the people to make a choice between the two.
"The selection is not between Congress and BJP; it is between Shivraj and me,” Scindia said, according to ANI. “Now the people have to decide whom they want -- Scindia or Chouhan.”
Scindia futher hit out at the ruling parting at a road show on Wednesday for having ignored the state for the past 14 years.
"No BJP minister was seen here for past 14 years. But after the death of MLA Mahendra Singh, the government is so interested in Mungaoli, that it seems it is going to be capital of Madhya Pradesh instead of Bhopal," he said, according to an ANI report.
Scindia's road show covered 30 villages in Mungaoli.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won 27 of the 29 seats in poll-bound state. The term of Madhya Pradesh assembly ends on January 7.
Congress registers complaint against Chouhan
EC has advised Shivraj Singh Chouhan to be more careful while making speeches.
EC's direction came after Congress registered a complaint with the election watchdog that a government project was announced by Chouhan at a time moral code of conduct is in force.
Chouhan allegedly made the announcement while addressing a public rally in poll-bound Mungaoli on February 16.
The poll body said that the Chief Minister violated model code of conduct by "announcing" the construction of bridge over a river.
The model code of conduct is enforced as soon as elections are announced. Under the rules, the government is barred from making any announcements that can impact the poll outcome in election-bound states and disturb the level playing field.
The by-polls were necessitated due to the death of Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).