With fall of MP govt, Congress loses further footprint in country

The resignation of Kamal Nath as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister saw a further reduction in the Congress's footprint in the country as it lost yet another state to the BJP.

With the fall of its government in Madhya Pradesh, the grand old party now rules only in five states -- Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, besides Jharkhand and Maharashtra, where it is in power with the help of its allies and is a fringe player -- and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

The exit of its 15-month government in Madhya Pradesh came a year after the Congress lost its government in Karnataka, where it had decided to play a second fiddle to the Janata Dal (Secular), despite having more numbers.

Nath tendered his resignation on Friday and sent the same to Governor Lalji Tandon, ahead of the crucial floor test ordered by the Supreme Court.

In his letter of resignation, Nath said in his 40-year-long public life, "I have always done politics of purity and valued democratic norms and given priority to it. But what transpired in the last two weeks is a new chapter of devaluation of democratic values."