Budget, status of Rawat to dominate monsoon session

Bhopal: The monsoon session of the state assembly, which is set to begin on July 1, will be marked by two key events—presentation of annual state budget and the status of Congress MLA Ram Niwas Rawat, who joined BJP in April, but still has not resigned from the assembly.
During the monsoon session, the assembly is expected to meet 14 times, as per the notification issued by state assembly secretariat.The session would conclude on July 19.
Finance minister Jagdish Devda would present the state’s annual budget for 2024-25 on July 3. This year, the state govt had passed a vote on account for four months on Feb 14 due to the Lok Sabha polls.
The budget estimate for this fiscal is estimated at Rs 3,48,986.57 crore. The vote on account was for Rs 1,45,229.55 crore.
This time, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will not be in the House, breaking his 18-year streak. Elected from Vidisha Lok Sabha seat, Chouhan is now a member of Parliament and had resigned from the state assembly on June 17.
The focus of the monsoon session will be on the Congress MLA from Vijaypur seat, Ram Niwas Rawat, who joined the BJP on April 30. Rawat, a six-time MLA and former minister in the Digvijaya Singh govt quit the Congress and joined BJP ahead of the third phase of LS polls.
Though Rawat had joined the ruling party nearly two months ago, he has still not resigned from the state assembly. This means, he is still a Congress MLA officially and when he steps into the House on July 1, he might have to sit with the opposition members.
Sources in the BJP said that Rawat is not willing to resign till the ruling party fulfils its promise of inducting him as a cabinet minister in the Mohan Yadav govt. But the cabinet expansion is likely to take place only after the end of the monsoon session. It is expected that Rawat and former Congress MLA from Amarwara Kamlesh Shah, if he wins the Amarwara bypoll, would be accommodated in the cabinet. By-election in Amarwara is scheduled on July 10, for which BJP has fielded Kamlesh Shah and Congress has given ticket to Dhiren Shah.
TOI contacted Rawat over phone on Wednesday and asked if he will sit with the opposition Congress MLAs in the assembly, to which he said, “Let us wait till July 1. I will come to Bhopal, that is all I can say." TOI also tried to contact LOP Umang Singhar, but he could not be reached.
Earlier, a similar situation arose when former Congress MLA from Badwah assembly seat Sachin Birla quit the Congress party and joined BJP in the presence of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on October 24, 2021. However, he did not resign from the state assembly. For the next two years, Birla worked for the BJP, but was officially a Congress MLA.
The Cong demanded that former Speaker Girish Gautam end his membership from the House, but no action was taken. Congress then took the matter to court.