MP Cong suffers another jolt as MLA jumps ship to BJP

Bhopal, July 17 (IANS) Amid the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, Congress suffered another blow in Madhya Pradesh after its MLA Sumitra Devi Kasdekar submitted her resignation to pro-tem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma on Friday.Soon after tendering the resignation, Kasdekar met Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan at his residence and joined the BJP.Kasdekar took the BJP membership in the presence of MP BJP president V.D. Sharma, Chief Minister Chauhan and Ministers Arvind Bhadoria and Mohan Yadav. Talking to reporters, pro-tem Speaker Sharma said that he had asked Kasdekar to reconsider her decision. Even then, she said that she has resigned from her membership, which should be accepted.Earlier this year, 22 Congress MLAs had resigned from party membership and joined the BJP, leading to the fall of the Congress government in the state. Congress MLA from Chhatarpur Assembly constituency, Pradyuman Singh Lodhi, recently resigned from the party and joined the BJP. The effective strength of the Assembly now is 205. The ruling BJP has 107 MLAs, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has two legislators, Samajwadi Party one and four are Independents. By-elections are now scheduled to be held in 26 constituencies soon.
--IANS hindi-sdr/arm