Over 15 months after he took over as the chief minister ofMadhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath resigned from the top post on Friday.
His move comes a day after the Supreme Court directed that afloor test be conducted in Madhya Pradesh Assembly to prove that the Congressgovernment led by him enjoys majority in the House following the rebellion by22 MLAs of his party.
Nath submitted his resignation to Governor Lalji Tandon atthe Raj Bhawan here this afternoon.
“He submitted his resignation to the governor,” aRaj Bhawan official told PTI.
In his resignation letter, Nath said, “In my 40-year-long public life, I have always done politics of purity and valued democraticnorms and given priority to it. But what transpired in the last two weeks is anew chapter of devaluation of democratic values.”
In the letter, he also congratulated new chief minister ofthe state and said he will also extend help in the development of the state.
Before submitting his resignation, Nath addressed a pressconference, where he announced his resignation.
During the press conference, he also accused the BJP ofkilling the democratic values by conspiring against his government and blamedformer Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia for the current political crisis inthe state.
“I have decided to submit my resignation to thegovernor. But I will continue to work for the welfare of the people…I did thepolitics of value,” he said.
“I took over as the CM on December 17, 2018. During mypolitical career, I have always believed in development. I was given anopportunity for a period of five years to give a new identity to thestate,” he said.
“The BJP didn’t like the people-centric works carriedout by my government during our 15-month rule, so they kept conspiring againstme,” he said.
Nath alleged that 22 Congress MLAs were held captive inBengaluru by the BJP, which has been witnessed by the entire country.
“BJP killed the democratic values by conspiring,”he said.
“I have proved my majority on the floor of the Houseseveral times during the past 15 years…but the BJP betrayed the people ofstate by destabilising the government,” he said.
Nath mentioned the works carried out by his governmentduring the last 15 months, including the farm loan waiver and development ofcow shelters.
“BJP betrayed the farmers by conspiring againstme,” he said, claiming that 400 promises made in the election manifestowere completed in 15 months.
He said the BJP was afraid of the success of his government.
Blaming Scindia for the ongoing political crisis in thestate, Nath said “BJP colluded with Maharaj (Scindia) for killingdemocracy and my government.”
Earlier this month, Scindia quit the Congress and joined theBJP. Twenty-two Congress MLAs, who were loyal to him, had rebelled andresigned.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court had ordered the MadhyaPradesh Assembly Speaker to conduct a floor test by 5 pm.
After Speaker N P Prajapati accepted the resignation of 16rebel Congress legislators on Thursday night, the Kamal Nath government wasreduced to minority with 92-MLAs in the 230-members house. The resignations ofsix others had been accepted earlier.
Similarly, the strength of the house also reduced to 222,trimming down the majority mark to 104.
In this situation, the BJP has the majority mark with 107.
On Friday morning, the speaker said that he has accepted theresignation of BJP MLA Sharad Kol (Beohari).
But, Kol said that he had applied for withdrawing theresignation submitted earlier. This has further reduced the number of BJP MLAsto 106, but well above the majority mark in current strength.
While the BSP has two members in the House, theSP has one.Besides, them there are four Independents. All these MLAs BSP, SP andindependents- had extended their support to the Congress during the formationof government.
In the renewed situation, these MLAs are yet to clarifytheir stand.