In another shakeup of Congress in Madhya Pradesh, MLA Rahul Lodhi from the Damoh constituency resigned from the assembly on Sunday, further taking a toll on the already exhausted party.
With his resignation, the effective strength of the party has been reduced to 87 in the Madhya Pradesh assembly. According to sources, Lodhi was said to have been in contact with the BJP leadership for a long time and on Sunday he finally handed over his resignation to the chairman of the protem of the parliamentary assembly, Rameshwar Sharma. Later he joined BJP in the presence of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the head of state VD Sharma in Bhopal.
Meanwhile, three independent MLAs, Surendra Singh Shera, Pradip Jaiswal and Rana Vikram Singh, have extended their support for the BJP government led by Shivraj Singh, while the fourth, Kedar Davar, announced their support for the party days ago.
Suspecting Lodhi’s defection, Congress leader Kamal Nath had met him in the past, but all efforts were in vain. To add, Lodhi is the cousin of former MLA Pradyumn Lodhi who had resigned from Congress and is in contention for the seat of Bada Malhera.
Welcoming Lodhi to BJP, Chouhan accused Nath of running a one-man show in Congress and advised him to introspect why the Congress party was going from bad to worse. Claiming that party leaders have been insulting him, Chouhan asked Congress to speak about development.
CM Chouhan also claimed that if a capable worker wanted to be included in BJP, the party decided to let him do so.
MP Congress in a tweet made a brave face saying the BJP to “buy” another Congress. The MLA showed that the ruling party was not winning a single seat in the parliamentary elections. In the current scenario, the BJP will need seven victories to reach the 115 majority mark in the deputy assembly, while Congress will need to win all 28 seats to claim the majority.
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