Bizarre twist: 6-time Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA turns BJP minister twice in 15 minutes

BHOPAL: In a bizarre first, a Congress MLA was sworn in as a minister in the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh govt - that too twice in a span of 15 minutes on Monday.
Six-time Congress MLA from Vijaypur, Ram Niwas Rawat, had joined BJP in a public meeting on April 30 during the Lok Sabha elections, but had not yet formally resigned from Congress when he showed up for the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhavan on Monday.
First, he took oath as a minister of state (rajya mantri). Whether it was a slip of tongue and Rawat said 'rajya mantri' instead of 'rajya ka mantri', or a procedural gaffe, is not known, but the fact is that he was still a Congress lawmaker when he read his oath for the second time, now as a 'cabinet mantri'.
According to sources, Rawat had refused to resign as a Congress MLA until BJP fulfilled its promise of making him a minister. It was only after he was sworn in that he sent his resignation as Congress MLA to the assembly Speaker.
Rawat not disqualified, this is insult to democracy: Congress
Congress was outraged. “A report with sufficient basis and authenticity was submitted before the Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar to terminate the membership of Congress MLA Ram Niwas Rawat (on July 5). Unfortunately, he did not perform his duty. BJP, which is notorious for killing democracy, got a Congress MLA sworn in as minister! This is a blatant insult to democracy and the Constitution,” said PCC chief Jitu Patwari.

Rawat, a prominent OBC face in Gwalior-Chambal region, was a minister in the Digvijaya Singh govt and was among the few from the area who did not follow Jyotiraditya Scindia into BJP in March 2020. This is why it came as a major shock to Congress when he joined BJP in the presence of chief minister Mohan Yadav at a public meeting in Vijaypur on April 30 -the very day that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was campaigning in the state.
A week later Morena went to the polls and Rawat’s switch to BJP is believed to have played a significant role in the saffron camp’s victory. Vijaypur is in Sheopur district but is part of Morena Lok Sabha constituency.
After joining BJP, Rawat claimed that Congress hadn’t given him recognition or respect. Over two months after he joined BJP, he was inducted as the 32nd member of the Mohan Yadav cabinet.
The oath-taking ceremony turned out to be more dramatic than anyone would have imagined. At 9:03 am, Rawat took oath as minister of state. Instead of saying ‘rajya ka mantri’ (state’s minister), he read his oath as ‘rajya mantri’ (minister of state). This created a commotion amongst his supporters, who voiced their disappointment. Fifteen minutes later, Rawat was again sworn in, this time as a cabinet minister.
CM Yadav, deputy chief ministers Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Dewda, state BJP president VD Sharma, state BJP organizational general secretary Hitananda Sharma and minister for water resources Tulsi Silawat were present during the swearing-in.
“Ram Niwas Rawat has taken oath as cabinet minister. My govt will benefit from this new appointment,” CM Yadav said. “He has a long experience in legislative affairs and has major influence in the Chambal region. He joined us so that the region can be developed and the govt understands and supports his sentiments. We will work in the region for development,” he added.
Asked about the double oath-taking, Rawat said, “That was a little mistake and it was rectified.”
Congress is seeing red. During the monsoon session last week, Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar and a delegation of Congress legislators met speaker Narendra Singh Tomar and demanded that two of their MLAs -Rawat and Nirmala Sapre – be disqualified since they had quit the party but hadn’t resigned from the House.