2020 Madhya Pradesh political crisis

2020 Madhya Pradesh political crisis
	Jyotiraditya Scindia (left), Kamal Nath (centre), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (right)
Date	5–20 March 2020
Location	Madhya Pradesh, India
Also known as	2020 Madhya Pradesh government formation
Type	Parliamentary crisis and government formation
Cause	Resignation of Jyotiraditya Scindia and other Indian National Congress MLAs
Participants	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); Indian National Congress (INC); Other political parties and Independents
Outcome	Fall of the Kamal Nath government and formation of fourth Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

Last updated April 30, 2024

In March 2020, a political crisis took place in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, due to the resignation of 22 sitting MLAs of the Indian National Congress party from the state's Legislative Assembly.^[1] It eventually led to the fall of the Kamal Nath government and the subsequent formation of the fourth Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh.

Timeline

In November 2018, elections in Madhya Pradesh were held for all constituencies of the Legislative Assembly. Although no party got a majority, the Indian National Congress (INC) was the single largest party in the assembly. They formed the government with the help of one BSP MLA, one SP MLA and four Independent MLAs. Kamal Nath was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
On 5 March 2020, 10 MLAs (6 Congress members, 2 from BSP, 1 from SP and 1 Independent), flew to Delhi. 6 of these MLAs initially returned. The remaining 4 MLAs then flew to Bengaluru, where Congress MLA Hardeep Dang resigned from the party. The remaining three MLAs returned soon and denied the claims, made by other Congress leaders, that they were a part of horse-trading.
On 10 March 2020, a senior leader of INC, Jyotiraditya Scindia suddenly went to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Amit Shah, Home Minister of India. After meeting them, at around 11:30 am, he resigned from the Congress party, saying that he felt very guilty while working for Congress.^[2]
The next day (11 March), at around 3:00 pm, he joined Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Jagat Prakash Nadda, National President of Bharatiya Janata Party. After joining the party, he slammed Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath and other Congress leaders for not giving the importance in the party. Throughout his press conference, he didn't mention the names of the Nehru-Gandhi Family. After joining the party, he was given the ticket of Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh by Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Both the parties (INC and BJP) approached the Supreme Court (SC) to ask for a floor test in Madhya Pradesh. On 19 March 2020, the SC ordered that the floor test in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly should be done by 5:00 pm, of 20 March 2020.^[3]
On 20 March 2020, after a press conference at noon, the Chief Minister Kamal Nath tendered his resignation.^[4]
On 21 March 2020, in Delhi, all the 22 rebel ex-Congress MLAs joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, in presence of BJP's national president J P Nadda.^[5]
On 23 March 2020, Shivraj Singh Chouhan took oath as the new Chief Minister.^[6]

Later events

By 23 July 2020, another 3 Congress MLAs (Pradyuman Singh Lodhi (of Malhara), Sumitra Devi Kasdekar (of Nepanagar) and Narayan Patel (of Mandhata)) had resigned to join the BJP.^[7]
On 3 November 2020, by-elections were conducted in the constituencies of all the resigning members to fill the vacant seats.^[8]^[9]^[10]

List of MLAs who resigned

S.No	Constituency	Member	Date of resignation	2020 by-election results ^[11]
1.	Surkhi	Govind Singh Rajput Cabinet Minister	10 March 2020	Won back seat as BJP candidate
2.	Dabra	Imarti Devi Cabinet Minister		Lost election to INC candidate Suresh Raje
3.	Sanwer	Tulsi Ram Silawat Cabinet Minister		Won back seat as BJP candidate
4.	Bamori	Mahendra Singh Sisodia Cabinet Minister
5.	Sanchi	Prabhuram Choudhary Cabinet Minister
6.	Gwalior	Pradhumn Singh Tomar Cabinet Minister
7.	Ashok Nagar	Jaipal Singh Jajji
8.	Karera	Jasmant Jatav		Lost election to INC candidate Pragilal Jatav
9.	Suwasra	Hardeep Singh Dang		Won back seat as BJP candidate
10.	Gohad	Ranvir Jatav		Lost election to INC candidate Mevaram Jatav
11.	Gwalior East	Munnalal Goyal		Lost election to INC candidate Satish Sikarwar
12.	Anuppur	Bisahulal Singh		Won back seat as BJP candidate
13.	Morena	Raghuraj Singh Kansana		Lost election to INC candidate Rakesh Mavai
14.	Badnawar	Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon		Won back seat as BJP candidate
15.	Mehgaon	O. P. S. Bhadoria
16.	Ambah	Kamlesh Jatav
17.	Mungaoli	Brajendra Singh Yadav
18.	Pohari	Suresh Dhakad
19.	Bhander	Raksha Santram Saroniya
20.	Dimani	Girraj Dandotiya		Lost election to INC candidate Ravindra Singh Tomar Bhidosa
21.	Sumawali	Adal Singh Kansana		Lost election to INC candidate Ajab Singh Kushwah
22.	Hatpipliya	Manoj Choudhary		Won back seat as BJP candidate
23.	Malhara	Pradyuman Singh Lodhi ^[12]	12 July 2020
24.	Nepanagar	Sumitra Devi Kasdekar ^[13]	17 July 2020
25.	Mandhata	Narayan Singh Patel	23 July 2020

Outcome

A new government was formed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Due to these resignations, by-elections needed to be held for all these constituencies. The 2020 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly by-elections were carried out in November 2020. 18 of the 25 MLAs involved in the crises, won their seats back as BJP candidates and the BJP government retained their majority in the Legislative Assembly.

Related Research Articles

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, is an Indian politician and member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh from 2020 to 2023 and previously from 2005 to 2018 and a Member of Legislative Assembly in Madhya Pradesh from Budhni since 2006 and previously from 1990 to 1991. He is the longest serving Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia is an Indian politician who serves as the Minister of Civil Aviation and Steel in the second Narendra Modi ministry since 2021. He is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing the state of Madhya Pradesh since 2020. He is a former Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing the Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2002 until his defeat in the 2019 Indian general election. He is former member of the Indian National Congress (INC) from 2001 to 2020 and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2020. While a member of the INC, he served as the Minister of State for Power and Corporate in the second Manmohan Singh ministry from 2012 to 2014.

Elections to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly were held on 28 November 2018 to elect members of the 230 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh. The election was a direct political battle between the BJP and the INC. One of the main centers of attraction was the contest between Congress heavy-weight Arun Yadav and the then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. While the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had tried to win for consecutive 4th term, the INC fought for winning the state after 2003. The election led to a hung assembly, with the INC emerging as the single largest party and the BJP winning the popular vote. After the results, Congress and BSP formed the government with Kamal Nath becoming the chief minister.

Tulsi Ram Silawat is an Indian politician serving as a cabinet minister in the Madhya Pradesh state government and a two-time representative of the Sanwer constituency in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He took the oath as a cabinet minister in the new Madhya Pradesh government on 25 December, 2018. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 21 March, 2020, and took oath as the Water Resources Minister under Shivraj Singh Chouhan's cabinet on 21 April, 2020. On 20 October, 2020, he resigned from the post of Water Resources Minister. Because, as per Article 164 (4) of the Indian Constitution, a minister who is not a member of the House must be elected to an assembly within 6 months of being appointed minister.

Imarti Devi is an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She had served as Minister of Women and Child Development in Madhya Pradesh Government, first in Kamal Nath's Congress government from December 2018 to March 2020, and later under Shivraj Chauhan's BJP government from July 2020 to November 2020. She lost the 2020 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly by-elections from Dabra against the Suresh Raje of Indian National Congress.

Mahendra Singh Sisodia is an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is one of the 22 MLAs who resigned amid political crisis in Madhya Pradesh favouring Jyotiraditya Scindia.

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References

↑ "Jyotiraditya Scindia resigns from Congress, more than 20 party MLAs quit". The Economic Times. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
↑ Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (10 March 2020). "Resignation letter from Indian National Congress". twitter.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
↑ "Supreme Court orders floor test in Madhya Pradesh by 5pm tomorrow". The Statesman. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
↑ "Kamal Nath Resigns Ahead of Floor Test". thewire.in. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
↑ "22 rebel Cong MLAs, whose resignation led to fall of Kamal Nath govt, join BJP". Live Mint.
↑ Milind Ghatwai (23 March 2020). "Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan takes oath as CM for fourth term". www.msn.com. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
↑ "Madhya Pradesh: Another Congress MLA Narayan Patel resigns, joins BJP". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
↑ "MP: उपचुनाव को लेकर चुनाव आयोग ने शुरू की तैयारियां, 5 महीने में 13 लाख आए इस तरह के आवेदन". News18 India (in Hindi). Retrieved 29 September 2020.
↑ "Triangular contest expected as BSP to contest in all 24 seats in Madhya Pradesh bypolls". The New Indian Express.
↑ "Madhya Pradesh BJP may give Congress rebels bye-poll tickets, says state party chief". Scroll.in.
↑ "Election Commission of India" . Retrieved 27 November 2020.
↑ "Madhya Pradesh MLA Kunwar Pradyumna Singh Lodhi quits Congress, joins BJP". The Hindu. 12 July 2020.
↑ Rahul Noronha (17 July 2020). "MP: Congress MLA Sumitra Devi Kasdekar gives up assembly seat, joins BJP - India News". India Today. Retrieved 5 May 2021.

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[1] "Jyotiraditya Scindia resigns from Congress, more than 20 party MLAs quit". The Economic Times. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.

[twitter-2] Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (10 March 2020). "Resignation letter from Indian National Congress". twitter.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.

[statesman-3] "Supreme Court orders floor test in Madhya Pradesh by 5pm tomorrow". The Statesman. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.

[wire-4] "Kamal Nath Resigns Ahead of Floor Test". thewire.in. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.

[5] "22 rebel Cong MLAs, whose resignation led to fall of Kamal Nath govt, join BJP". Live Mint.

[msn-6] Milind Ghatwai (23 March 2020). "Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan takes oath as CM for fourth term". www.msn.com. Retrieved 10 January 2021.

[toi-7] "Madhya Pradesh: Another Congress MLA Narayan Patel resigns, joins BJP". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 November 2020.

[election-8] "MP: उपचुनाव को लेकर चुनाव आयोग ने शुरू की तैयारियां, 5 महीने में 13 लाख आए इस तरह के आवेदन". News18 India (in Hindi). Retrieved 29 September 2020.

[indianexpress-9] "Triangular contest expected as BSP to contest in all 24 seats in Madhya Pradesh bypolls". The New Indian Express.

[10] "Madhya Pradesh BJP may give Congress rebels bye-poll tickets, says state party chief". Scroll.in.

[results2020-11] "Election Commission of India" . Retrieved 27 November 2020.

[12] "Madhya Pradesh MLA Kunwar Pradyumna Singh Lodhi quits Congress, joins BJP". The Hindu. 12 July 2020.

[13] Rahul Noronha (17 July 2020). "MP: Congress MLA Sumitra Devi Kasdekar gives up assembly seat, joins BJP - India News". India Today. Retrieved 5 May 2021.

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