MP Congress moves SC, seeks access to its rebel MLAs

Madhya Pradesh Congress party moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking direction to the Centre and the BJP-led Karnataka government to grant it the access to communicate with its rebel MLAs.

Earlier in the day, the apex court asked the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh to respond by Wednesday to a plea by senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan seeking immediate floor test in the state Assembly.

The state Congress party, in its plea, urged the apex court to declare as illegal the action of the Centre, the Karnataka government and the BJP's state unit of illegally confining its MLAs in Bangaluru.

It also sought a direction for allowing its rebel MLAs to participate in ongoing budget session.

The trust vote should be held only in the presence of all the duly elected MLAs of the state Assembly, said the plea filed by MLA Govind Singh, the chief whip of Congress legislature party in the assembly.

It said the communications of Governor Lalji Tandon asking the government to hold trust vote be declared as "illegal and unconstitutional".