Damoh MLA Quits Congress Ahead of MP Bypolls to Join BJP; Nath Running One Man Show, Says CM Chouhan

In yet another jolt to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, MLA Rahul Lodhi from Damoh constituency resigned from the assembly on Sunday, further denting the already depleted party.

With his resignation, the party’s effective strength has reduced to 87 in the Madhya Pradesh assembly. As per sources, Lodhi was said to be in touch with the BJP leadership for a long time and on Sunday he finally handed his resignation to the MP assembly protem speaker Rameshwar Sharma. Later he joined BJP in the presence of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state head VD Sharma in Bhopal.

Meanwhile, three independent MLAs – Surendra Singh Shera, Pradip Jaiswal, and Rana Vikram Singh have extended support to the Shivraj Singh-led BJP government while the fourth one, Kedar Davar has announced his support to the party days ago.

Suspecting defection from Lodhi, 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 Bada Malhera seat.

Welcoming Lodhi in 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. Alleging that the party leaders have been calling him names, Chouhan asked Congress to talk about development.

CM Chouhan also claimed that if an able worker wished to be included in BJP the party decided to let him do so.

MP Congress in a tweet put up a brave face saying the BJP by ‘buying’ another Congress MLA proved that the ruling party wasn’t winning a single seat in MP bypolls. In the current scenario, BJP will need seven wins to reach the majority mark of 115 in the MP assembly while the Congress will need to win all the 28 seats to reclaim the majority.

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