As 22 Congress MLAs resign in MP, here's how the numbers could stack up in a floor-test

Senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday resigned from the party. The development came after the miffed leader and former MP from Guna in Madhya Pradesh met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi. Along with Scindia, at least 22 MLAs of the party including 6 Ministers who are in Bengaluru have tendered their resignation from the party.

BJP has enough numbers to form govt

The Madhya Pradesh assembly has a strength of 230 members. Two members have died since then one each from BJP and Congress. Another BSP member was also suspended, making the current effective strength of the House is 228 with two seats vacant.

Of the 228 MLAs:

• Congress has: 114 MLAs
• BJP has: 107 MLAs
• BSP has: 2 MLAs (including 1 suspended)
• Samajwadi Party has: 1 MLA
• Independents have: 4 MLAs

The MP government has the support of two MLAs from the BSP, one Samajwadi Party MLA and four are independents. However, after the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs loyal to Scindia, the overall strength of the Assembly will fall to 206, and the magic number required to form the government will be 104. In that case, the Congress would be left with just 92 MLAs, while the BJP would still be having 107 MLAs in the State Assembly, a comfortable number to form the government.

'We have nothing to do with this'

The BJP had been in power for 15 years in Madhya Pradesh before losing out to Congress in 2018. Congress is making all attempts to negotiate a compromise with Scindia, but a solution seems increasingly impossible. "We have nothing to do with this. This is Congress' internal matter and I would not like to comment on it. We had said on the first day that we are not interested in bringing down the government," senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.

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Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Scindia may have gotten lured by the offer of ministership made by Narendra Modi. "He held many senior posts in Congress party and was well respected. We know his family has been associated with BJP for decades, but yet his exit is a big loss," he said.

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According to sources, Jyotiraditya Scindia will join the BJP on Tuesday evening and it is possible that he would be sent to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket and may even get a ministership in the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

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