As Speaker Accepts Resignations of 16 More MLAs, Here’s How Numbers Add Up for Kamal Nath Govt

New Delhi: As ordered by the Supreme Court, the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh is slated to face a trust vote on Friday.

Resignation of all the 22 rebel Congress MLAs have now been accepted by the assembly Speaker. Initially, the speaker had accepted resignations of only six MLAs who were part of the Kamal Nath cabinet.

The resignation of these MLAs came after senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the Congress party earlier this month, saying "it is now time for me to move on" and that he was unable to serve the people of the country while remaining in the party.

Scindia since has joined the BJP and has also filed nomination papers for elections to the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh.

The total strength of the MP assembly is 230. Two seats are lying vacant as the sitting MLAs have passed away and the bypolls to the respective seats are yet to be held.

That brings down the effective strength to 228. If no MLA would have quit, the half-way or majority mark in the assembly would have stood at 115.

Of the total legislators, the Congress government until recently had enjoyed the support of 121 MLAs, which included four Independents, two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs, and one Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA.

With Speaker now accepting resignation of all the rebels, the strength of Congress will come down to just 92.

The effective strength of the House is now 206 and the half-way mark also comes down to 104. This leaves Congress well short of the half-way mark even if some independents and smaller parties are to vote for Kamal Nath government.

The BJP has 107 MLAs in the House voting against the trust motion. In such a scenario, the Kamal Nath government could fail to muster the requisite numbers to remain afloat.

So to survive the trust vote now, Kamal Nath would need to engineer counter defections from the opposition ranks.