R Krishna Das
Raipur, December 6
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs and ministers who won the recent Assembly elections in the three Hindi heartland states—Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh—have resigned from the Lok Sabha seats.
In a photo shoot with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and BJP National President J P Nadda, 10 of the 12 MPs elected in the assembly elections in the three states could be seen. It included two Union Ministers from Madhya Pradesh, Narendra Tomar and Prahlad Patel.
The MPs submitted their resignation after a meeting with the senior leadership, including party president JP Nadda. The move has sparked off debate in the political corridors that the Chief Ministers in the three key states that hold one of the keys to Lok Sabha could be from them.
The MPs who put their papers include Narendra Tomar, Prahlad Patel, Riti Pathak, Rakesh Singh and Uday Pratap Singh from Madhya Pradesh; Rajyavardhan Rathore and Diya Kumari from Rajasthan and Arun Sao and Gomti Sai from Chhattisgarh. Kirori Lal Meena, who also resigned, represented Rajya Sabha.
Renuka Singh from Chhattisgarh, who is also Union Minister and Mahant Balaknath Yogi, who are missing in the frame, have reportedly sent their resignation to the Speaker. Both the leaders are camping in their respective states. Coincidently, both Renuka Singh and Mahant Balaknath’s names have emerged as strong contenders for the Chief Minister’s post in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan respectively.
According to Constitutional experts, the Parliament Members who won Assembly elections had to quit one of the seats within 14 days otherwise they would have lost their Parliament membership. Besides the technical part, the move is also seen as the process of electing new chief ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
