Madhya Pradesh Crisis for Congress: ‘Rebel’ MLAs join BJP

Sarthak Sonwalkar : After the resignation of Chief Minister Kamal Nath on March 20th, the Congress ‘rebel’ MLAs who had been staying in Bengaluru since 9th March formally joined BJP on March 21st, 2020. They belong to the camp of Jyotiraditya Scindia and largely represented the region which is considered as Scindia’s stronghold in Madhya Pradesh. All eyes are now set on the BJP which now has majority of the seats required to form the government. The current effective strength of the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha has come down to 205, with in 103 being the majority mark.

Institutional drift in times of Corona

BJP has 104 MLAs as against 92 MLAs of the Congress. The rebel MLAs might get ministerial berths in the new government. Post Mr. Nath’s resignation, several prominent BJP leaders like Mr. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Shahnawaz Hussain, among others took to social networking sites like Twitter to term the situation as the “victory of the truth” or Satyamev Jayate. The crisis for Congress in Madhya Pradesh has deepened into the question of existential crisis, even as demands within the party have been rising for an overhaul since past many months. Coming months might see changes in the Congress organization as voices also continue to raise from within the party.