Leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Govind Singh, on Wednesday, 21 December, moved a motion of no-confidence against the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led state government. Speaker Girish Gautam allowed discussion on the motion, reported ANI.
Why now? The MP assembly is currently holding its five-day winter session, which began on Monday. The principal opposition, the Congress party, had expressed its intentions to bring the motion a few days ago after attacking the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on various grounds.
Singh had said that the opposition had prepared a charge sheet against the BJP government and that "During a discussion on the no-confidence motion (in the House), the Congress will target the BJP government over its anti-people policies through this charge sheet."
What are the charges listed by Congress? Today's motion is based on 51 points, including the matter of corruption in the central government schemes such as housing and education, and issues like nursing colleges scam, illegal sale of liquor, development of Mahakal Lok and the corruption thereafter, cases of atrocities on Adivasis, and increasing debt owed by the state government.
When was the last time a no-confidence motion was moved? The last time a motion of no-confidence was brought on the floor of the MP legislative assembly was in 2013 when the deputy leader of the Congress legislature party, Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi, had opposed the motion and defected to the BJP. He returned to the Congress in 2019.
How do BJP and Congress stack against each other? In the 230-member assembly, the BJP has 127 MLAs and the Congress 96.
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