Amid high drama, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly was today adjourned sine die without taking up a no-confidence motion against the BJP government as deputy leader of Opposition Congress revolted and thwarted discussion before joining the ruling party.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government pulled off a coup of sorts in an election year as it poached Chaudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi, deputy leader of the main Opposition Congress legislature party who blocked the debate on the no-trust motion, second since November 2011, and later announced his decision to quit the party.
Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh termed Chaturvedi's action as reminiscent of "Brutus", Roman Republic politician Marcus Brutus, who was responsible for the assassination of the Republic's dictator Julius Caesar, and accused him of entering into a "big deal" with BJP.
Singh said his party would pass a resolution to expel Chaturvedi from Congress and forward it to central leaders.
Chaos prevailed in the House when Singh rose to speak on the motion and Chaturvedi pointed out the "flaws" in it.
Chaturvedi said even now 721 pilgrims who had gone to Uttarakhand were missing and this had not been mentioned in the motion.
The issue involving former finance minister Raghavji, arrested for allegedly sodomising his domestic help, was also missing from the motion, he said and referred to a tweet by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh criticising Raghavji.
Quickly capitalising on the division in Congress, Industries Minister Kailash Vijaywargia said the no-confidence motion had "come to nought" as even the Congress deputy leader expressed lack of faith in it.
