Twenty-two rebel Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday, party General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said, according to PTI. These MLAs had resigned earlier this month, leading to the fall of the Kamal Nath-led state government, and had been disqualified by Speaker NP Prajapati.
The 22 leaders, along with Scindia, met BJP National President JP Nadda at his home in New Delhi. Nadda welcomed their decision to join the saffron party. The legislators might be given tickets during bye-elections necessitated by their resignations.
Scindia had resigned from the Congress earlier this month and joined the BJP.
Prajapati had accepted the resignations of 16 of these MLAs on Thursday, a day before Chief Minister Kamal Nath resigned once it became clear that his government would lose a trust vote in the Assembly. The Supreme Court had ordered the Assembly to hold a floor test on Friday, overriding the Speaker’s decision to adjourn the House till March 26. However, the floor test did not take place as Nath resigned.
Until early last week, the state government, which was formed in late 2018, had the support of 121 MLAs in the 230-seat Assembly – 114 MLAs of the Congress, and the rest being from the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, and some Independents. The BJP had 107 MLAs, while two seats were vacant.
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