Election of Assembly Speaker in Madhya Pradesh may prove to be a tough call for Congress

New Delhi, Jan 1: The Congress has been able to form the government in Madhya Pradesh with the support of independent, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs. But now electing Assembly speaker in the state is a big challenge for the party.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state is not in a mood to give a walkover to the Congress. It is considering to field its own candidate. The BJP is not interested in toppling the government in the state but wants to take benefits of the cracks appearing in the government. The BJP feels that even if the party does not get support of the people angry with the Congress but it will definitely be able to tell the weakness of the Congress to people.

However, the Congress is saying that if the BJP starts a new tradition for Assembly Speaker then the Congress will not give post of deputy Speaker to the Opposition. The Congress is the largest party in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly. There are 114 members of the Congress in the Assembly and the ruling party is supported by the one SP MLA, two BSP MLAs and four independent MLAs.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath has made an independent MLA Pradeep Jaiswal a minister in his government so there is no threat to the government in the crisis situation. The BJP with 109 MLAs is in the opposition. In such a situation if voting for Assembly Speaker takes place, the Congress may be in a difficult situation. Because BSP chief Mayawati has already started threatening the Congress.

The decision of contesting election of Assembly will be decided by the high command but the party is divide on the issue. One faction wants Speaker election to be contested and the Congress government to be toppled while the other faction wants to sideline such leader who had been responsible for the BJP's debacle in the state. They are talking about such leaders who were in the government.