After the longest debate of nearly 24 hours, the no-confidence motion moved by main Opposition Congress was defeated by 149 votes here in the state Assembly.
Leaving doors ajar to his opponents, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan harped on his social schemes in his almost three hour long speech.
He evaded “to-the-point” replies to a volley of allegations of corruption labelled against him and his Cabinet colleagues by the leader of Opposition Ajay Singh and other members of the Congress.
According to observers the BJP, though smartly handled the first no-confidence motion by restricting allegations pertaining to irregularities and corruption after 2008, the chief minister had no answer how he failed to exclude himself from appointment of Lokayukta despite he (Chouhan) was already facing an investigation by the sitting Lokayuka in an ill-fame Dumper case that allegedly cultivated benefits to his family members.
To an allegation made by Ajay Singh that Chouhan and his relatives unfairly earned residential properties in posh areas of Bhopal by misusing powers, the state chief minister tried to clarify by a rather weak reply, “I come from a joint family background and if I am to count there must be at least 500 houses that belongs to my relatives.”
Chouhan also ducked an answer to a gross allegation made by another senior member of Congress that during the last three years BJP government purchased powers of Rs 14000 crore from private firms namely Adani Power, Tata, Lanco, Essar, JSW, Kalyani Power and others without inviting tenders. The member also cornered him that against available coal of 135 lakh metric tonne his government has failed to consume only 120 lakh tonnes yet cry for more coal and allege political bias in coal allocation.
Ajay Singh pointed out that corruption is the main issue in the state and alleged “few ministers are in hands and gloves with middlemen and power brokers.”
He cited an example of a close associate and officer on special duty of a cabinet colleague of Chouhan that the officer was a school teacher three years back on a salary of Rs 5000 per month.
“Now that teacher owns a luxury Audi Q7 Car and is director on a number of companies, why the chief minister does not want all school teacher to own Audi-Q7?” he left the house with a pregnant pause.
Chouhan also skipped replies to allegations of irregularities made by opposition that National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) scheme allegedly cultivated direct benefits to relatives of certain ministers.
A member had alleged, “State government made illegal purchase of nursery plants under NREGS from private firms owned by a minister’s relative, and another relative of a minister supplied certain hormone injections worth Rs 3 crore to be administered to Jatropha plants.”
Another cabinet colleague Gopal Bhargava also replied in a crude way against the allegations, “the MNREG scheme is faulty and Centre should withdraw it,” and admittedly added, “It has created Rs 18000 crore jobs, if there is any corruption of one percent, it is the most transparent government.”
Only 63 members voted in favour of the motion which was tagged with 37 allegations against the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues. The allegations were also involved some of the relatives and family members of the Chouhan cabinet. This motion was first after a gap of nine years against a government. The last no-confidence motion was moved by the then leader of opposition Dr Gauri Shankar Shejwar against Digvijay Singh government.
