Madhya Pradesh Crisis: Kamal Nath May Quit Before Floor Test As Digvijaya Singh Concedes 'Don't Have Numbers'

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath will address a press conference at noon on Friday, hours ahead of the scheduled floor test to prove his majority in the state assembly. Speculations are rife that Kamal Nath might announce his resignation rather than face the floor test during the press conference. These speculations were further boosted after senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh conceded that they 'did not have the numbers' to survive the floor test. The floor test for the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh to prove its majority in the Assembly is scheduled for 2.00 pm on Friday.

Talking to India Today, Singh said that the Kamal Nath government will not be able to survive the trust vote. He said that after the acceptance of the resignations of 22 MLAs, the government did not have the numbers.

"It's a case of majority government reduced to the minority through use of money and power," Digvijaya Singh said.

Speaker NP Prajapati had accepted the resignations of 16 rebel Congress MLAs around 11.30pm on Thursday. The rebel MLAs are still in Bengaluru and had refused to participate in the floor test. Six resignations were accepted earlier. This means that the resignations of all the 22 MLAs who resigned from the assembly with rebel leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has been accepted.

The strength of house is down to 206 now with the majority mark at 104. The Congress now has 91 members excluding the speaker. It may gather the support of four independent legislators, one SP MLA and two BSP members, but will still fall short of the majority mark by six. The BJP has 107 MLAs in the assembly.

Supreme Cout has ordered immediate floor test after hearing the plea of former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The court has directed the trust vote to be completed by 5 pm on Friday. The agenda for the floor test was was issued at 1.30 am on Friday by Assembly principal secretary AP Singh.