BHOPAL: A fresh political controversy has broken out in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh over the appointment of two-time ruling party MLA Rameshwar Sharma as the pro tem Speaker of the State Assembly. The five-days next session of the Vidhan Sabha starts from July 20.
Rameshwar Sharma, is the second time MLA from Huzur seat of Bhopal district and is considered close to the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He was among those Chouhan men who failed to get ministerial berth during Thursday’s second cabinet expansion.
Despite being a much junior MLA in comparison to other BJP MLAs, Sharma was appointed the pro tem Speaker on Saturday evening, much to the chagrin of the opposition Congress.
“As per Rule 9(1) of House Business Conduct Rules the names proposed in the Speaker’s panel by the previous Vidhan Sabha Speaker NP Prajapati nowhere had Rameshwar Sharma’s name. It had multiple-times BJP MLA Jagdish Devra’s name who was appointed the pro tem speaker in March, after then Speaker NP Prajapati had quit from the post, following fall of then Congress government. But violating all norms, Devra was appointed a cabinet minister during cabinet expansion on Thursday, while he resigned as the pro tem Speaker five hours after taking oath as cabinet minister,” senior Congress leader and head of State Backward Caste Commission JP Dhanopiya said on Sunday.
“First appointing Jagdish Devra as minister without resigning as pro tem speaker and two days later appointing Rameshwar Sharma (who has no experience of being Speaker’s panel to work as pro tem Speaker or taking care of House proceedings in absence of Speaker) as pro tem Speaker has clearly established that CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has no respect for existing rules and norms. We demand probing both developments by an all party panel and immediately scrapping both appointments,” demanded Dhanopiya.
Reacting to Congress’s recent allegations, the state BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said, “be it senior advocate and Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha or other advocates turned Congress leaders like JP Dhanopiya, they have been unnecessarily raising legal issues to mislead people. Right from the day the BJP government was formed to till date, the BJP and government has been working as per Constitution. Instead of misleading people on such issues, the Congress should go to the Court.”