Kamal Nath asks ministers to look after MLAs to prevent poaching

Days after the Lok Sabha poll results, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has moved swiftly to keep his flock of Congress MLAs together to thwart any poaching attempt by a resurgent BJP.

Nath, whose five-month-old government is surviving on a wafer-thin majority, has asked each of his Cabinet colleague to look after at least five legislators to check any desertion to the opposition camp, a Congress leader said Monday.

Apprehension about the government’s stability has crept in the Congress after its humiliating defeat in the recently concluded general elections in Madhya Pradesh, where it won just one of the 29 parliamentary seats, conceding the rest to the BJP.