The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday accused the Congress of forging signatures of its MLAs to get a bill passed in the Assembly last week, PTI reported.

“We have come to know that some 8 to 12 Congress MLAs were not present when the Criminal Law [Madhya Pradesh Amendment] Bill was put to vote on Wednesday,” Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava said. The BJP is reportedly planning to approach the governor with a request to verify the signatures of the Congress MLAs.

The accusation came days after two Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs voted in favour of the Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government for an amendment to the criminal procedure code in the state.

“Right now, we are studying the powers of the governor so that we can petition him with the request to verify the signatures of the Congress MLAs who participated in the voting,” Bhargava said. “We suspect that their [eight to 12 Congress legislators] signatures were forged,” he said, adding that the voting procedure was not videographed. He also questioned how the Congress party got 122 votes despite their absence.

“I had already spoken to MP Assembly Principal Secretary AP Singh over phone and asked him to seal the entire voting procedure,” Bhargava was quoted as saying. “I could not raise the issue in the House as it was adjourned after the voting.”

However, Congress MLA Sanjay Yadav refuted these allegations and said that Bhargava was present in the House at the time and he should have himself checked the voting procedure. “Nobody had stopped him then. Why is he complaining now?” he said, adding that the BJP has made it a habit to speak lies.

On Wednesday, BJP MLAs Narayan Tripathi and Sharad Kaul had voted for an amendment to the criminal procedure code in Madhya Pradesh. The voting occurred after an argument between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Bhargava in the Assembly. Bhargava had claimed that the Congress government would not last even a day if the BJP’s top leadership wished so. To this, Nath had said, “Your number 1 and number 2 are smart”, suggesting that his government is stable and the BJP will not make any attempts to destabilise it. Nath also said he was ready to face a confidence motion at any time.

“The BJP says daily that we are a minority government and one which could fall any day,” Kamal Nath had said after the vote. “However, during voting in the Assembly on criminal law amendment bill, two BJP MLAs voted in favour of our government.” On Thursday, Nath appealed to the Opposition to rise above partisan politics and focus on the state’s development.

The Congress has 114 MLAs in the 230-member Assembly, and enjoys the support of seven other legislators – two from the Samajwadi Party, one from the Bahujan Samaj Party and four independents. The BJP has 108 MLAs.