Days after the BJP managed to bring the Congress-JDS government down after allegedly orchestrating large-scale resignations in the ruling alliance, the saffron party is experiencing defections from its own camp in Madhya Pradesh.
This was after two BJP MLAs defied the party’s decision and voted in favour of a Bill tabled by the Congress government of Madhya Pradesh. The Advocate Protection Act Bill was brought in the assembly to meet the long-term demand of lawyers in the state. It was drafted 15 years ago but never saw the light of the day during the 15 years of the BJP rule under Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Defying the party line, BJP MLAs namely Narayan Tripathi and Sharad Kol voted in favour the Bill, which received the support of 122 MLAs in the assembly. The BJP had refused to take part in the vote.
Both MLAs, according to The Hindu, called their decision to support a Congress Bill their ghar wapsi (homecoming). “In the previous government, Shivraj Singh Chouhan had made tall promises in my constituency but delivered nothing. There was also an attempt within the party to sabotage my election. Congress is my old home and I am headed back to it. I’ll do whatever is best for my constituency,” he told reporters.
Tripathi was previously in the Samajwadi before he successfully contested assembly polls on a Congress ticket. However, he had joined the BJP in 2015 before winning from the Maihar assembly seat in the 2016 bypolls. He contested on a BJP ticket in the last year’s assembly elections and won too from the same seat.
As for Kol, he too is a son of Congress leader Jugul Kol but had joined the BJP just before the December 2018 assembly polls. He went on to win on a BJP ticket.
The Congress-JDS government fell after failing to secure a majority in the 224-seat Karnataka assembly. The Congress had accused the BJP of engineering a split of sorts in the party to form a new government in the key southern Indian state.