Trouble brewing for Nath Govt

If the exit poll results are an indication of things to come, the Congress party is no longer sitting pretty in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress was, as it is, finding it difficult to keep its flock together. But now the threat is more potent: the local BJP unit has demanded a floor test for the Kamal Nath government.

This is not the first time that the Congress-led government is getting the jitters. Nath has survived a few scares in the past as well. The political temperature rose in Madhya Pradesh last month after Lokendra Singh Rajput, a candidate of Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, quit and joined the Congress, saying he supports Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Mayawati was furious and tweeted that she would reconsider her support to the Kamal Nath government. Nath, however, indicated the matter was resolved, saying, ‘‘Mayawati's party has the same goal as us... that is the exit of the BJP".

The party, however, is in for fresh trouble as the state BJP has written to Governor Anandiben Patel, asking her to convene a session of the state Assembly so that the Congress government could prove its majority in the House.

In the Assembly polls last year, the Congress won 114 of the state's 230 seats, two short of the majority mark of 116. The Bahujan Samaj Party, which has two MLAs,

and Samajwadi Party, which has one, are supporting the Congress. There are four Independents. The BJP had won 109 seats. Rajasthan and Karnataka are the other states where the general elections could upset the apple cart of the Congress. BSP supremo Mayawati had in January threatened to pull out of the governments in Rajasthan over arrests of "innocent" people during Bharat Bandh. She had also criticised the Ashok Gehlot government recently over the gang-rape of a Dalit woman.