Amid an intense buzz about the imminent fall of the Kamal Nath government following revolt by senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and resignation of his 19 loyalist MLAs, the BJP on Tuesday night flew all its MLAs to New Delhi for consultation with the top leadership on the prospective chief minister.
Meanwhile, three more Congress MLAs have announced to resign, taking the number of rebels to 22.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Kamal Nath told party MLAs to brace up for mid-term election in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting at his house, where 93 out of 114 party MLAs were present.
BJP legislature party that held a meeting around the same time in the evening left the decision of the prospective chief minister to the high command. Party MLAs raised slogans hailing three-time chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. However, he clarified that Gopal Bhargava continued to be the leader of Opposition and the meeting was held to discuss the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election.
Acknowledging grave crisis to his government, Kamal Nath told MLAs that all was not lost. “We will not accept defeat.”
There were conflicting reports about the number of Congress MLAs present in the meeting. Public relations minister P C Sharma told DH that Congress would prove its majority on the floor of the House.
After daylong political developments, the BJP sent all its MLAs to airport to be flown to New Delhi. They were not allowed to pick up their luggage from home. The decision was taken following a meeting among Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda.
The BJP MLAs' meeting ended at 8 pm. Half an hour later, Shivraj was summoned to Delhi. Ten minutes later, all 106 MLas were asked to rush to the national capital.
Party sources said Shivraj Singh’s name is almost final for the chief minister’s post but it will not be announced till the BJP ensures defeat of the Congress in the floor test in the Assembly which is due to commence from March 17.