Amid political crisis, MP cabinet okays creation of 3

Amid the ongoing Congress-BJP political tug-of-war in Madhya Pradesh, the cabinet on Wednesday gave its "in-principle approval" to the formation of three new districts in the state.

At meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Kamal Nath, "in-principle approval" was given to the proposal to constitute three new districts - Chachaura, Maihar and Nagda, said a public relations department officer.

With this, the number of districts in Madhya Pradesh goes up to 55.

Chachaura, currently part of Guna district, is also the assembly seat represented by Lakshman Singh, younger brother of Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh.

This fulfils a long-pending demand of Lakshman Singh, who, a couple of months ago, had sat on a dharna at the residence of Digvijaya Singh to seek district status for his assembly constituency.

Similarly, Maihar, currently part of Satna district, is the assembly seat represented by BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi, who was seen with Congress legislators just after the assembly proceedings on Monday.

He was also absent during the parade of BJP legislators before the governor on Monday. Tripathi has been demanding district status for Maihar since long.

Tripathi, along with another BJP MLA Sharad Kol (Beohari), had backed the Congress-led government during voting on a bill in the MP Assembly in July last year.

Nagda is currently part of Ujjain district.

The cabinet also cleared several other proposals, including appointments of retired IAS officers.

On Tuesday, a BJP delegation led by former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met Governor Lalji Tandon, requesting him to cancel appointments being made to constitutional posts by the "minority" Congress government.

In a massive setback for the Congress, its prominent leader Jyotiradtya Scindia quit the party and in a coordinated rebellion 22 MLAs loyal to him resigned last week, pushing the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government to the brink of a collapse.

Scindia joined the BJP on March 11.

Since the resignations of MLAs, the oppositon BJP has claimed the Congress government has been reduced to a "minority".