While the floor test ordered by the Supreme Court will decide the fate of the 15-month-old Congress government in Madhya Pradesh Friday, it will also throw light on which side of the political divide BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi stands. The Maihar legislator had visited Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s residence on March 16, when the BJP paraded 106 members before Governor Lalji Tandon."I was discussing issues related to the development of my constituency,’’ he said of his fourth visit to the CM house since political upheaval began in the state. He had repeated the same line when reporters saw him leaving the CM residence on March 5 midnight. In the cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, the government gave in-principle approval to creating three districts, including Maihar, a demand Tripathi has been making for a long time. Tripathi and one more BJP MLA had voted with the ruling party on a bill in the July session. While the other legislator returned to the BJP fold, Tripathi has kept every one guessing. He has the rare distinction of getting elected on three different symbols from the same constituency. He was first elected from Maihar, a famous temple town in Satna district, in 2003 on the Samajwadi Party ticket. He lost the next election but won in 2013 on the Congress ticket. After keeping the Congress on tenterhooks, he resigned, necessitating a by-election. He joined the BJP and comfortably won the by-election. In the 2018 Assembly elections, he repeated his performance, this time with a margin of 2,984 votes. Despite Tripathi switching his loyalty on the floor in July, the BJP did not crack the whip against him or the other legislator. The party put up with the embarrassment, even though it came hours after Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava had boasted on the floor that the party could quickly topple the Congress government after getting the go ahead from "no 1 and no 2", an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. He neither joined the Congress nor left the BJP. In between, he visited the BJP headquarters to assure the party that he had not changed his loyalty. However, with the Congress and BJP having issued a whip for the trust vote, he will have to decide his loyalty or face consequences. "The BJP welcomes you with respect, puts gamchha (sash) around your neck, applies tilak, like a goat is prepared for ritual sacrifice, and then slaughters you politically,’’ he had told The Indian Express a day after shocking his own party. Just after embarrassing the BJP, he lavished praise on Shah on the abrogation of Article 370. Early this year, he slammed the BJP on the new citizenship law, saying it is divisive. As SP legislator, he had organized a yagna in Bhopal to pray for the longevity of legislators in the wake of the untimely death of a few lawmakers. Tripathi’s name had figured in a chargesheet filed in the honey trap case. He was neither made an accused nor questioned, but one of the women had given a statement naming him. There was speculation that the honey trap association, which became public only when the charge sheet was filed, had to do with his flip flop.
