Bhopal, March 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday decided to go all out against the BJP in retaliation to its attempts to destabilise the government.
It opened a new front in the ongoing war when the Umaria district administration bulldozed unauthorised structures of BJP MLA Sanjay Pathak's tourist resort in Bandhavgarh on Saturday morning and razed the crop in the nearby field.
The district administration said directives for the action were issued on February 12 after 11 resorts in the area were found to have violated Forest land regulations. Pathak's resort is said to have encroached upon two acres of forest land.
Pathak has allegedly financed the Operation Lotus launched by the BJP to poach the Congress MLAs. Earlier on Thursday, the iron ore mine of Sanjay Pathak's family was forced to shut down at Sihora near Jabalpur.
Pathak expectedly cried foul saying the government action was vengeful. How could they raze the standing crop on agricultural land?
According to the administration, Bandhavgarh action started with Pathak as his was the largest unauthorised occupation of forest land.
On Friday, Pathak said that his life is in danger because of the political turmoil. State Minister P.C. Sharma promptly said the action was initiated strictly under rules.
The new director general of police Rajendra Kumar in his first orders withdrew the security of most BJP veterans.
The government has withdrawn the services of jawans engaged in the protection of many leaders including former ministers Sanjay Pathak, Narottam Mishra, Arvind Singh Bhadoria, Vishwas Sarang.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Pathak and Vishwas Sarang have alleged that the state government has exposed the BJP MLAs' lives to risk.
In a cascading effect, 30 MLAs from the state have written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking security as they were being targeted for raising their voice against the Kamal Nath government.
Economic Offences Wing (EOW) raids
The EOW has started clamping down on former minister Narottam Mishra. It resumed investigation of the land purchased in Ratanpur in the name of farmers.
An EOW tam led by inspector Jitendra Pathak, has started an investigation into the matter on Friday. The team also reached Mishra's home town of Dabra.
Apart from this, the team has also questioned the farmers in whose name the land was purchased. Mishra claims it was one of the old tricks of harassing opponents.
The EOW started an investigation against Mukesh Sharma, a confidant, of Mishra.
Investigations revealed that Sharma's company funded the purchase of land in the name of 14 farmers in Dabra and Bhitarwar and 21 properties were registered for land purchased near Bhopal on a single day. The deal appeared to be carried out under benami transactions.
The BJP has also decided to take the Congress head on.
At Friday's meeting at the house of Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava, National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Prahlad Patel, Narottam Mishra are learnt to have decided to go aggressively to persuade many Congress MLAs to resign so that it can turn its current strength into a magic figure of majority and win an extra seat in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress has so far been sure of winning two seats from the state with the present count of 114. Each Rajya Sabha candidate needs 58 votes to win a seat.
Independent MLA Surendra Singh Shera reached Bhopal on Saturday and met with Kamal Nath. Shera, who was in Bengaluru with the family for four days, had clarified that he was backing the Kamal Nath government. With one BSP MLA suspended, the other can be lured to cross the floor.
The BSP, which is supporting the Kamal Nath government from outside, is also preparing to field candidates against the Congress in Jaura and Agar in the upcoming by-elections. The BSP has started electoral preparations. The BSP has also conducted an election survey regarding the by-election.
The Kamal Nath government may soon expand the cabinet to avert the crisis. There are indications that all the ministers have been instructed to stay in Bhopal on March 8.
Speculation is rife about a possible rejigging of ministry with the chief minister inducting independents and SP-BSP and dissident Congress MLAs.
On Friday, all ministers offered to resign to pull the government out of the crisis. They said the Chief Minister would thus get free hand to reconstitute the Council of Ministers.
Meanwhile one BJP legislator, Sharad Kol, who had along with Narayan Tripathi cross-voted in favour of Congress during the previous Monsoon session, has gone missing since Friday.
Kole had met Shahdol Collector Lalit Dahima at around 9 p.m. on Thursday, after which he has not returned till Saturday afternoon.
Source: IANS
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