The Madhya Pradesh political crisis deepened on Monday with 18 MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia flew out to Bengaluru with their phones switched off, prompting mass resignations by state Cabinet ministers and a flurry of meetings in both the Congress and the BJP camps. Chief Minister Kamal Nath met Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, while Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting of BJP leaders, including former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
CM Kamal Nath along with senior Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha went into a huddle, which was followed by a Cabinet meeting where 22 ministers tendered their resignations. Kamal Nath has reportedly accepted their resignations, which paved the way for him to reconstitute the Cabinet keeping in view the rebel MLAs.
"We have expressed our solidarity with the chief minister and submitted resignations to him in the cabinet meeting," one of the ministers said. According to reports, Kamal Nath, at the meeting, said he will not allow the BJP to destabilise his government using "mafia help".
"I have dedicated all my life to serving the people, but the BJP has indulged in immoral ways to destabilise my government.... I won't let those forces succeed which are creating instability with mafia's help," Nath was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"My biggest strength is the trust and love of people of Madhya Pradesh. I won't let those forces succeed which are creating instability in government, a government created by people of Madhya Pradesh," he added.
How the rumbling in Congress started?
The political drama had started last week when around 10 of Kamal Nath's MLAs traveled to Haryana and the Congress party alleged that the BJP was trying to buy them to topple the state government. The BJP, however, denied the allegations of horse-trading.
However, eight of them returned but two MLAs - HS Dang and Raghuraj Kansana - remained elusive. On Tuesday, six ministers – including Pradumn Singh Tomar, Imarti Devi, Prabhuram Chowdhary, Govind Singh Rajput, Tulsi Silawat and Mahendra Singh Sisodiya -- and 11 MLAs of the Congress party went incommunicado with their phones switched off. Most of these legislators are from the Gwalior-Chambal region and they are known to be Scindia loyalists.
According to reports, the Congress will now offer Scindia a Rajya Sabha birth and ministries to his loyalist MLAs. Also, his close aide state Health Minister Tulsi Silawat can be offered the post of Madhya Pradesh Congress president.
Scindia, who fought hard to get the top job in Madhya Pradesh after the Congress party's victory in the recent Assembly polls but failed, has been at loggerheads with Kamal Nath. Last month, the two leaders made their feud public with Nath asking him to switch over to the "other side" after Scindia threatened to hit the streets against the state government.
The 231-member Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly has 228 members at present. Two seats were left vacant after the death of their respective MLAs while one is nominated.
The Congress has 114 members while the BJP has 107 MLAs in the state Assembly where the majority mark is 115. Of the remaining nine seats, two are BSP MLAs, one is of SP and four are independents. They all have extended their support to the Kamal Nath government.
