Ahead of Rajya Sabha elections, the Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government plunged into a crisis after senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and at least 19 MLAs who are believed to be supporting him suddenly became 'incommunicado' on Monday.
After the 19 MLAs became 'incommunicado', Chief Minister Kamal Nath called a late-night cabinet meeting where around 20 ministers resigned reposing faith in his leadership.
While the crisis loomed on Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, many party leaders made efforts were made to woo back disgruntled Jyotiraditya Scindia who has long been at daggers drawn with Kamal Nath over leadership issues.
But without giving any heed, on Tuesday Jyotiraditya Scindia tendered his resignation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, giving a major setback to the grand old party. After Scindia resigned 19 Congress MLAs, who are said to loyal to the former Congress leader, submitted their resignations. Even, senior Congress leader and MLA Bisahu Lal Sahu joined BJP.
Congress for quite some time now has been accusing BJP of trying to topple its government. The grand old party’s accusations came after 10 of its MLAs travelled to Haryana, though BJP had denied the allegations.
While the Congress, which was voted to power in MP after 15 years in 2018, has 114 MLAs, the opposition BJP has 107 legislators. Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the Bahujan Samaj Party and one legislator of the Samajwadi Party are supporting the Congress-led state government. Two members died since the 2018 assembly elections. After which the effective strength falls to 228, which also brings down the majority mark.
Here's how the numbers stack in Madhya Pradesh:
Total Assembly Seats: 230
Majority mark: 115
Present strength: 120 MLAs with Kamal Nath government (114+4+2+1)
Party wise break-up:
Congress: 114
BJP: 107
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP): 2
Samajwadi Party (SP): 1
Independents: 4
If Speaker NP Prajapati accepts resignation of the 19 Congress MLAs the overall strength of the assembly will fall to 209 and majority mark will come down to 105.
