MP crisis highlights: BJP welcomes Scindia with Rajya Sabha ticket

Disgruntled Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday joined the BJP in presence of the ruling party's president JP Nadda. The BJP has named Scindia as one of its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh and is also confident of forming the government in the state with his help as 22 MLAs including Scindia's supporters have resigned from the state assembly reducing the Kamal Nath government to a minority, PTI reported.

The 15-month-old Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh is tottering on the brink of a collapse.

Scindia jumped the Congress ship on Tuesday. In his resignation letter, dated March 9 and tendered to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on March 10, Scindia said: "It is now time for me to move on". He was unable to "serve the people of the country while remaining in the party", he wrote. A shell-shocked Congress, in a largely inconsequential move, expelled him after this. Scindia's exit split the grand old party in the state, with several leaders expressing their dissent.

How the numbers stack up: Congress has a wafer-thin majority in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly whose current effective strength is 228. If the resignations of 22 or more MLAs is accepted, the strength of the Assembly will fall to 206 or less. The magic number for retaining the majority then will be 103. The Congress will be left with 92 seats and the BJP 109 seats.