Kamal Nath resigns as political unrest in Madhya Pradesh deepens

Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon on Friday accepted the resignation of Chief Minister Kamal Nath -- which he had submitted a few hours earlier in the wake of the political unrest in the state.

The chaos were precipitated by the sudden resignation of veteran Indian National Congress (INC) leader Jyotiraditya Scindia from the party post. Following the resignation, 16 MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia also put in their papers, forcing the party to bump out of majority in the state assembly.

The resignations have now brought down the strength of the ruling Congress to 92. And Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now has more number of seats in the assembly.

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The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly now awaits a floor test for the election of the new government -- something that might not happen at all.

Speaker Prajapati has said there was no need for a floor-test as Chief Minister Kamal Nath had already tendered his resignation.

The Congress-led by Kamal Nath came into power in 2018 with 114 MLAs -- and the support of seven individual MLAs from BSP, SP and Independents.

The resignations have brought BJP into majority with 106 seats (majority is marked at 104). Even if Narayan Tripathi doesn't vote in favour of BJP, the party's strength will still be 105.

Meanwhile, Jyotiraditya Scindia called Kamal Nath's resignation "victory of people of Madhya Pradesh."

But Kamal Nath had blamed horse trading and BJP's money power behind the change of power.

"Twenty-two of our MLAs were held captive in Bengaluru. This was politics spending crores of rupees," Nath said at a press briefing before tendering his resignation.