Bhopal: In a bid to keep its flock together, the crisis-hit Madhya Pradesh Congress has decided to shift its 92 MLAs either to Jaipur or some other place.
The move comes after 21 Congress MLAs loyal to former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned on Tuesday, pushing the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government to the brink of collapse.
“We are going to take our 92 MLAs and those supporting our Madhya Pradesh government to a hotel,” a senior Congress leader said on Wednesday.
The legislators would be taken either to Jaipur or some other Congress-ruled state like Chhattisgarh, a party source said.
Apart from its own MLAs, the Congress is also keeping a close watch on four Independents who are supporting the party-led state government.
On Tuesday, 21 Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh resigned soon after Scindia quit the party.
The development reduced the Congress government in the state to minority.
The state Congress unit is now making all efforts to save the Kamal Nath-led government.
The BJP on Tuesday night shifted its MLAs to Manesar at Gurugram in Haryana, sources in the saffron party said.
The Congress, whose tally before the rebellion was 114, has a wafer-thin majority in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly whose current effective strength is 228.
It also has the support of four Independents, two BSP legislators and one SP MLA, but some of them are now likely to switch sides to the BJP.
The BJP has 107 seats in the state Assembly.
Also read: Inside story of how Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi forced Jyotiraditya Scindia to dump Congress
Time has come to amend rules of functioning of assembly. Henceforth assembly should held only at resorts so that if there is game plan for parties to topple government, the rival parties need not spend money to air lift it’s MLA’s to resorts. The MLA’s can regroup and then topple. Who ever gets toppled, they must give way to tippler. Every five years, the same can repeated so that voters need not waste their time and our money also get saved. I urge Print to take it forward.