The Bharatiya Janata Party, currently sitting in the opposition in Madhya Pradesh has on Monday announced to contest for the Assembly speaker post, even as the ruling Congress’ candidate filed his nomination for it, and is set to field former minister and Harsud MLA Vijay Shah as their candidate for the post.
While CM Kamal Nath was okay with BJP’s decision to file its candidate a state minister said he was hopeful that the opposition party (BJP) will withdraw its candidate as the state had the tradition of electing the speaker unanimously.
The election for the post will be conducted on Tuesday.
The Congress’ MLA from Goregaon, NP Prajapati who has filed his nomination with the assembly secretariat would have to contest for the post opposite BJP’s candidate if the latter does not withdraw its nomination.
Vijay Shah, accompanied by former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other BJP leaders, also filed his nomination papers at the Assembly secretariat alleging that the Congress “deviated from the tradition in appointing the pro tem speaker”.
“Democracy is run by tradition. Madhya Pradesh has a long history of tradition. But, Congress has deviated from the established traditions. The senior-most MLA (in the newly elected Assembly) should have been appointed as speaker, irrespective of his/her party,” BJP’s MP unit chief Rakesh Singh told reporters at the state party headquarters here.
He pointed out that newly-elected Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, the senior-most member of Parliament, was the Lok Sabha’s pro tem speaker.
Though welcoming the BJP’s decision to field its candidate for the speaker’s post, Kamal Nath showing his annoyance on the allegations meted out at his party for deviating from traditions said, he does not want any lessons on the issue from them (BJP).
Meanwhile, state Public Relations Minister P C Sharma was hopeful that the BJP will withdraw its candidate. “It has been a tradition in MP to elect the speaker unanimously. I hope the BJP will withdraw its candidate,” Sharma said.
Madhya Pradesh victory had not come easily to the Congress as BJP had given it a tough fight with securing 109 seats and not letting the Congress reach the majority mark. The Congress got 114 seats out of the total of 230 seats.
