Ahead of Rajya Sabha polls, MP BJP calls meet of MLAs on Tuesday

The Madhya Pradesh BJP has called a meeting of its 107 MLAs on Tuesday ahead of the March 16 budget session of the state Assembly and the Rajya Sabha polls for three seats scheduled on March 26.

The Rajya Sabha terms of Congress veteran Digvijay Singh, and BJP leaders Prabhat Jha and Satyanarayan Jatiya will end on April 9. The meeting will begin at 6 pm, a BJP functionary said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the party had sent a list of 20 to 22 names, including that of national general secretaries Ram Madhav and Kailash Vijayvargiya, to its Central poll panel to pick two candidates for the RS polls.

While factionalism has reared its head again in the Congress, with senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who heads a group opposed to Chief Minister Kamal Nath, and some of his supporters going incommunicado on Monday, the BJP is also having anxious moments due to a couple of its legislators.

BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi had frequented Nath's residence last week and had, along with another legislator Sharad Kol, missed the saffron party's meet on March 3.

Tripathi and Kol had gone against the party and voted in favour of a Congress-sponsored bill in the state Assembly in July last year.

In the 230-member state Assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs while the BJP has 107, assuring both parties one RS seat each, with the tussle centring on the third.

Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the Bahujan Samaj Party and one legislator of the Samajwadi Party are supporting the Congress-led state government.

Two seats are vacant following the demise of an MLA each of the Congress and the BJP. Members of a state's Legislative Assembly vote in the Rajya Sabha elections.