BENGALURU: Rebel Congress legislators from Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday said they were in Bengaluru of their own volition trying to decide on the next course of action.
At least 22 legislators including former ministers, loyal to Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member, are holed up in a resort in the outskirts of Bengaluru for over a week now.
The BJP on Monday moved the Supreme Court demanding an urgent trust vote in the Madhya Pradesh assembly, after speaker N.P. Prajapati adjourned the session till 26 March, citing rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.
The apex court on Tuesday issued notices to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, the state government, and assembly speaker on a petition by BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan and others for a floor test.
The court will hear the matter at 1030 am on Wednesday.
The legislators in Bengaluru said they were forced to take the extreme step as Kamal Nath had been ignoring demands for funds for development instead diverted money and programmes to his home constituency of Chhindwara.
"Because of the chief minister there is not a single rupee’s worth of work that was given to my constituency. Kamal Nath gave all works and allocations to Chhindwara (Nath's constituency)," Govind Singh Rajput, former minister and Congress legislator from Surkhi said.
The Congress leadership, on the other hand, has accused the BJP of engineering the crisis to destablise another state government not under saffron rule.
“We are ready for any consequences,” Rajvardhan Singh, Congress legislator from Badnawar said.
The rebel legislators have said they are yet to decide on the next course of action but did not rule out joining the BJP, adding that they feel secure in Bengaluru as another 20 Congress legislators are being held against their will in Madhya Pradesh.
At least two BJP legislators in Karnataka have said they were helping efforts to keep the Congress MLAs safe, averting attempts to take them back to Madhya Pradesh.
