(10:35) 

BHOPAL: Amid poaching allegations levelled against the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, three MLAs from the opposition party met Chief Minister Kamal Nath late Thursday night and were believed to likely join the ruling Congress on Friday.

Sharad Kaul, Sanjay Pathak and Narayan Tripathi met the Congress Chief Minister, after which Tripathi, an MLA from Maihar, is said to have resigned from his Assembly membership. Tripathi, however, has so far denied resigning as an MLA.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that while the Congress was wooing the BJP MLAs, former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Arvind Menon met at the Delhi residence of Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar for around eight hours. Former Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra too reached Delhi to discuss the developments with party leaders.

On the other hand, Congress MLAs Rahul Lodhi and Praduman Lodhi and others were said to be in touch with Union Minister Prahlad Patel.

Talking to IANS, BJP leader Hitesh Bajpai claimed that 35 MLAs from the Scindia camp had refused to support the Kamal Nath government, as a result of which it had been reduced to a minority. “The state government should first deal with this situation. We will keep our MLAs united,” Bajpai remarked.