22 MLAs, Whose Exit Sank Congress in MP, Joins BJP
New Delhi: The twenty-two former Congress legislators who had resigned from the party following Jyotiraditya Scindia’s resignation, have now formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The resignation of these MLAs played a pivotal role in the eventual fall of Kamal Nath-led Congress government in the state of Madhya Pradesh. “With a pledge of Madhya Pradesh’s development and progress, 22 ex-legislators and my former collegues from the Congress, who are a part of my family, met BJP President JP Nadda today, and joined the party,” Mr Scindia said in a tweet in Hindi.
The 22 MLAs, all loyalists to former Congress leader and Madhya Pradesh royal Jyotiraditya Scindia, resigned from the party on March 9, bringing the Kamal Nath government on brink of collapse. The resignations, however, were not immediately accepted by Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati.
The MLAs were later taken to a resort in Bengaluru to avoid any horse-trading attempts. After weeks of political drama, the resignations of all the MLAs were accepted on Thursday following a Supreme Court judgement. CM Kamal Nath resigned the next day.
The resignations of the MLAs brought down the total strength of the assembly to 206, with Congress’ tally standing at 92, while the BJP crossing the majority with 105 MLAs.