New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh Congress Legislature party (MPCLP) moved the Supreme Court Tuesday seeking direction to the Centre and the BJP-led Karnataka government to grant it access to communicate with its rebel MLAs allegedly kept at Bangalore.
The development came on the heels of the apex court asking the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh earlier in the day to respond by Wednesday to a plea by senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan seeking immediate floor test in the Assembly.
MPCLP, in its plea filed by Govind Singh, an MLA and chief whip of Congress legislature party, urged the apex court to declare as illegal the action of the Centre, Karnataka government and the MP BJP of illegally confining its MLAs in Bangalore.
The plea, filed through senior lawyer Devdutt Kamat, said the trust vote would be a ‘sham’ if 22 MLAs did not take part in it as almost 10 per cent of constituencies go unrepresented.
“In the instant case, as the 22 MLAs who represent 22 constituencies almost constituting 10 per cent of the total seats have purportedly resigned, the electorate of such constituencies are completely unrepresented. In these circumstances, a trust vote if held will be complete sham and would be antithetical to the principle of representative democracy which is the basic feature of the constitution,” the plea said.
A floor test in such a situation ought to be held only after by-elections to the seats falling vacant as a result of the resignations have been held, the MPCLP said. The plea also sought a direction to allowing its rebel MLAs to participate in the ongoing budget session. The party also said that the trust vote can be held only in the presence of all the duly elected MLAs of the MP Assembly.
“It is relevant to note that although these MLAs have purportedly sent their resignation letters, none of them have resigned from the primary membership of Congress party,” the plea further said.
Agencies