Amid crisis over survival of K'taka govt, MP Cong dares BJP to seek division of votes in house

Bhopal, July 23: The ruling Congress in Madhya Pradesh on Monday dared the BJP to seek a division of votes in the Legislative Assembly if it had the "courage" to do so and appealed to the opposition party to stop spreading "misinformation" about the survival of the coalition government in the state.

The latest attack by the Congress came a day after the saffron party boycotted the proceedings of the ongoing session of the House when the financial bill was taken up.

Meanwhile, suspense continued in Karnataka over chief minister HD Kumaraswamy's resignation and survival of the Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) coalition government.

MP Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said, "Instead of seeking a division of votes on financial matters, the BJP has been boycotting the Assembly session at crucial times. The saffron party knows that in case of voting, its defeat is certain."

She told reporters that BJP leaders, who were "day-dreaming to form the saffron government in the state", had been spreading misinformation about the survival of the Kamal Nath-led government.

Oza said that instead of seeking vote division on the financial bill, which was cleared comfortably, the BJP chose to stay away from the proceeding on a "lame excuse" that the House should first pay tributes to departed Congress leader Sheila Dikshit.

"The business committee of the House on Sunday morning decided to pay tribute to Dikshit on Monday morning," she said, while waving some papers, which she said were of the proceedings in the House.

The chief minister had taken Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava into confidence on the issue, she said and added that the BJP had even boycotted elections of Speaker and deputy Speaker of the Assembly earlier.

"Since the Congress won the Assembly elections (last December), the BJP have played all tricks to destabilise it. It had threatened our MLAs and even offered Rs 50 crore to destabilise the government, but in vain," she said.

Bhargava had in May requested the then governor Anandiben Patel to convene a special session of the House to hold a floor test. He had said the BJP would seek a division of votes on financial matters, a move which will test the Congress-led government's strength in the House.

If the government failed to push through financial matters in the House, it runs the risk of losing majority and falling, the senior BJP legislator had said.

In the polls held last year, the Congress won 114 of total 230 seats, two short of the simple majority mark. The Kamal Nath government is supported by the SP, the
BSP and Independents.