Stopping horse trading becomes impossible if Centre supports it: Kamal Nath

Bhopal : Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Monday accused the BJP of indulging in ‘horse trading’ and ‘toppling’ of elected governments in the states, saying that stopping horse trading becomes impossible if the Centre supports it.

“We have seen examples of toppling the state governments like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra. In all these states, the BJP has satisfied its hunger by toppling the non-BJP governments,” he said.

“Laws have been made to stop horse trading, but when the Central government itself supports it then the law becomes incapable of stopping it,” the former Chief Minister added. He pointed out that horse trading not only kills a democratic government but also kills the basic decision of the people for change.

Kamal Nath is all set to start the campaign for by-elections in Budhni and Vijaypur Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh where he is scheduled to address two public rallies in Budhni on Tuesday. He will also address public rallies in Vijaypur on Wednesday. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh will also campaign for the party’s candidates Budhni and Vijaypur bypolls from Wednesday.

In Budhni, the bypolls was mandated after former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan resigned from the state Assembly after being elected for Lok Sabha.

Chouhan, who represented Budhni for five consecutive terms between 2006 and 2023, is now Union Agriculture Minister.

The BJP has fielded Ramakant Bhargava against Congress’ Rajkumar Patel, who had won this seat for the Congress last time in 1998.

Bypolls in Vijaypur was necessitated after ex-Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat resigned from the party and the state Assembly and shifted to BJP during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

Rawat, who at present is the state forest minister, will be contesting from Vijaypur in BJP’s symbol.

Bypolls in two Assembly seats - Vijaypur and Budhni are scheduled for November 13, and the results will be announced on November 23.(IANS)