NEW DELHI, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Chief Minister of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath on Friday announced he is going to submit his resignation to the governor.
The Congress leader announced his resignation during a press conference at Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh.
The announcement came hours before he was supposed to show the majority of his party in the state legislature during the Supreme Court-ordered trust vote.
Nath read a paper during the briefing and stated his lawmakers were held hostage in Bengaluru. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of "murdering democracy" and plotting to pull down his government from Day 1.
"I would secure public certificate. Need no other certificates. BJP neither won't defeat my state nor can it defeat my will. I have done my politics with values all my life. They won't succeed ever," Nath said. "Today I will be handing over my resignation to the Governor."
The Congress Party lost its majority mark in the state after 22 of its lawmakers tendered resignation. The Congress party failed to woo back the disgruntled lawmakers who left the party after rallying behind Jyotiraditya Scindia. Scindia who was in Congress party last week joined BJP.
The 22 Congress resignations brought down the total strength of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly to 206. The ruling party has 92 members and seven allied MLAs, at least five short of a simple majority of 104. The opposition BJP has 106 MLAs after one resigned.
The BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a three-time chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, is likely to return to power.
Madhya Pradesh is the second state that the Congress party could not hold after Karnataka.
In Karnataka also the Congress party could not manage to keep the coalition intact and lost the state to BJP.
