With the by-elections for the 27 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh likely to be delayed beyond October, two key ministers of Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet, Tulsi Silawat and Govind Singh Rajput, are at the risk of losing their posts. Both the leaders had deserted the Congress and joined the BJP along with Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Twenty-two Congress MLAs had also joined the BJP then leading to the fall of the 15-month old Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh. But now, with the Election Commission keeping the situation dicey by not announcing the poll schedule apparently due to corona pandemic, the Scindia camp is heavily disappointed and worried.
The two staunch supporters of Scindia, Govind Singh Rajput and Tulsi Silavat are on the verge of losing the ministerial posts if they are not elected to the Assembly in the month of October. Indications are such that by-elections could be held only in November. With that being the case, both Rajput and Silavat will have to quit as ministers for not being MLAs. As per the rule, both of them should be elected to assembly by 22 October as they had taken oath as minister on 22 April. Any minister, who is not a member of the Assembly, should become an MLA before the completion of six-month period after his oath as minister, says the rule. Hence, the six-month period for Silawat and Rajput will be over by 22 October. If elections are not held by then it will be too late for them.
Apart from this, despite several months after joining the BJP, Jyotiraditya Scindia is yet to become a minister in the cabinet of Narendra Modi. Scindia supporters are unhappy with his not being inducted in the cabinet as of now. They are of the view that Scindia as a minister would have created an impact during the campaign for by-elections.
Meanwhile, the Congress is happy with the delay in elections thinking that it is going to benefit in the by-polls due to this. The party on Friday announced 15 candidates for Madhya Pradesh byelections.
Sources said that the Election Commission of India may take some more time in announcing the dates of elections due to the current corona crisis. By-elections in 64 seats across the country including 27 of Madhya Pradesh have to take place. It is expected that these bypolls will be held together with Bihar elections. Bihar polls are to be held before November 29. Speculations are that Bihar elections can be held after the second week of November in one or two phases.
The ECI may announce the schedule at the end of this month. With this in view, there are speculations that by-elections for Madhya Pradesh’ 27 seats may be held in November. But this does not bode well for the Scindia camp, with two ministers of his camp set to lose their posts in that condition.
However, Scindia is putting in his best as far as campaigning is concerned. He is campaigning along with CM Chauhan and Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar in MP. This is certain that the BJP will give tickets to o all those who left Congress.