Ready for floor test, says MP CM Kamal Nath

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath Monday asserted there is no threat to his five- month-old Congress government and expressed readiness to take the floor test to prove his majority in the assembly.

Nath's statement came in the backdrop of Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava of the BJP writing to Governor Anandiben Patel on May 20, requesting a special session of the assembly to discuss pressing issues and also seeking division (voting) on financial matters.

A division of votes in the House will indicate whether the Congress government enjoys majority support or not.

"There is no threat to my government. Let the floor test takes place. We are ready for it," Nath told reporters.

The Chief Minister along with senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh and others arrived at Shivrajpur, Churhat near here to pay tributes to Saroj Singh, the wife of former Union minister, the late Arjun Singh.

Saroj Singh died in New Delhi two weeks ago and her last rites were conducted at the familys ancestral place in Churhat in Sidhi district.

Asked about the Congress's poor performance in Madhya Pradesh in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, Nath said, "During the brief period that we got, we are unable to apprise people about the number of welfare schemes implemented for them."

The ruling Congress won just one Lok Sabha seat - Chhindwara (bagged by Kamal Nath's son Nakul) - in the state which sends 29 MPs to the Lower House of Parliament.

The Congress won 114 seats in the 2018 assembly polls, two short of a majority in the 230-member House.

It formed the government in December with the support of the two BSP MLAs, one from the SP and four Independent MLAs.

Sources had said Sunday that Nath has made up his mind to expand his Cabinet and induct some of these MLAs to ensure stability of his government.

The BJP, which lost power in the state after 15 years, bagged 109 assembly seats.