Surendra Singh said, "From Day 1, I've been supporting the Congress government"
One of the four missing Madhya Pradesh MLAs - Surendra Singh, an Independent legislator from Burhanpur supporting the Congress government - announced on Friday evening that he was still supporting the Kamal Nath government. Surendra Singh, also known as Shera Bhaiya, along with three Congress MLAs - Bisahu Lal Singh, Raghuraj Kansana and HS Dang - was allegedly taken by BJP leaders to Bengaluru in a bid to topple the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh.
Concerned by the missing MLAs, Kamal Nath has summoned all Congress members to Bhopal for a show of strength.
In a video outside the Bengaluru airport, Surendra Singh said, "From Day 1, I've been supporting the Congress government led by Kamal Nath and still support it. We all are with the Congress and the Madhya Pradesh chief minister. I left my niece's home in Bengaluru to catch the flight for returning to Madhya Pradesh on Friday but some people stopped me twice from going to the airport, owing to which I missed the flight. Will catch another flight and return to Madhya Pradesh. I'll meet Sahab (Kamal Nath) in Bhopal on Saturday and tell him that I am still supporting the Congress government."
Surendra Singh contested the 2018 assembly polls from Burhanpur seat as an Independent after being denied ticket by the Congress and defeated then Madhya Pradesh minister and senior BJP leader Archana Chitnis.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Friday that his party's government was completely safe despite the BJP's efforts to lure away MLAs. "It is Operation Moneybags, not Operation Lotus by the BJP. Our government is safe and we will run the government for five years. They (BJP) used to say we will not last even three months," said the former Chief Minister.
He has accused the BJP of "kidnapping" MLAs of the Congress and its supporting parties to topple the government, timed alongside elections to the Rajya Sabha in which votes of MLAs count.
The Congress government is staring at the possibility of more exits after one of its MLAs, Hardeep Singh Dang, resigned and handed a resignation letter that has been widely circulated on social media. In the letter, he complains he was never made a minister or given any significant post to enable him to stay in state capital Bhopal.
About a dozen MLAs, including those of the Congress and its supporting parties Samajwadi and BSP, surfaced at a five-star hotel in Gurgaon near Delhi on Tuesday evening. The Congress alleged that the BJP has held the MLAs hostage to bring down the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government. Digvijaya Singh accused the BJP of offering Rs 25-35 crore each to MLAs backing the Congress government.
The Kamal Nath government has 120 MLAs -- four over the majority mark of 116 in the 230-member assembly. Of them, 114 are from the Congress, two from the BSP, one from the Samajwadi Party and four independents. The BJP has 107 MLAs and two seats are currently vacant. If the three other missing MLAs resign, it would bring down the number in the assembly to 224 and the majority mark to 113.