Madhya Pradesh political crisis: CM Kamal Nath meets governor Lalji Tandon at Bhopal

New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is at a meet with Governor Lalji Tandon at Raj Bhavan in Bhopal on Friday (March 13, 2020). 

Kamal Nath is likely to discuss the political developments in the state with the governor and demand to extend the assembly session. It is also probable that the CM could demand to bring back the missing MLAs, supporters of former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who are currently lodged at a resort in Bengaluru.

On Wednesday, Scindia joined the BJP after ending his 18-year long association with the Congress party.

The resignation of 22 Congress MLAs has put Chief Minister Kamal Nath-led government in Madhya Pradesh in a serious crisis and it highly unlikely that the Congress would be able to survive this setback.

The Madhya Pradesh assembly has a strength of 230 members but two seats are presently vacant due to the demise of two MLAs. The effective strength of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly is now 228 and the magic number required to form the government is 115.

Of the 228, Congress has 114 MLAs, BJP 109 MLAs, BSP 2 MLAs, Samajwadi Party 1 MLA and 4 Independents MLAs.

The Congress alone does not enjoy a majority in the Madhya Pradesh assembly and has been in power for the last 15 months with the support of the BSP and SP MLAs, taking its tally to 119.

But if the resignation of the 22 legislators is accepted then the overall strength will come down to 206, and the magic number required to form the government will come down to 104.

In that scenario, the Congress would be left with only 92 MLAs out of its own, which will allow the BJP to come to power as it has around 109 MLAs in the state assembly.