Congress MLAs arrive in Bhopal ahead of floor test

The Congress legislators who were lodged in Jaipur for the last few days returned to Bhopal on Sunday amid tight security at the airport. Section 144 was imposed in and around the airport to prevent large scale gathering.

At least 90 Congress legislators have arrived in Bhopal in a special flight on Sunday ahead of the floor test on Monday.

With the Madhya Pradesh governor directing Chief Minister Kamal Nath to seek a trust vote on Monday, the Congress MLAs, who were staying in two resorts in Jaipur, have returned to Bhopal, a Congress leader said.

The MLAs, who landed in Jaipur on March 11 amid a political crisis in Madhya Pradesh triggered by Jyotiraditya Scindia's exit from the Congress, were staying in two luxury resorts in Jaipur. Senior Congress leaders Harish Rawat and party's national secretary Sudhanshu Tripathi are also with them.

Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon has directed Chief Minister Kamal Nath to seek a trust vote in the assembly soon after his address on March 16.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress has issued a whip to all its MLAs asking them to be present in the House from March 16 to April 13 during the Assembly session and vote in favour of the government during the floor test.

Earlier on Saturday, the resignations of six MLAs out of 22 rebel Congress legislators were accepted by Speaker N.P. Prajapati, even as the BJP claimed the Kamal Nath government has lost majority and demanded that a floor test be held before the Budget session starts on Monday.

The strength of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly is down to 222 after 6 ministers were sacked, with the majority mark at 112. Before the rebellion early this week, the Congress tally was 114. It also had the support of four Independent MLAs, two legislators from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one from the Samajwadi Party (SP).