The BSP and the SP have won two and one seat, respectively, in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress has 114 seats, which is two short of the majority mark.
Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja announced on Wednesday that his party had the support of 121 MLAs in Madhya Pradesh.
“With the support of the BSP’s two (victorious candidates), the SP’s one and four Independents, the Congress’s tally is 121 in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly,” Saluja told reporters at Raj
Bhawan after Congress leaders met governor Anandiben Patel.
Akhilesh had told Samajwadi workers on October 6 that the Congress had kept him waiting for too long and that his party would contest the Madhya Pradesh elections on its own. “The SP doesn’t wait so long for anybody,” he had said.
Mayawati had claimed at a news conference on October 3 that senior Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was not in favour of an alliance. “Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were keen on an alliance (with the BSP) but it couldn’t happen because of Digvijaya Singh, who feared that the Centre would set the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI on him,” she had claimed.
Both the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party have pledged support to the Congress so that it can form the government in Madhya Pradesh, sweeping aside their pre-poll discontent at the Congress’s failure to respond to overtures for tie-ups and signalling their intent to stay close to power.
“The Samajwadi Party supports the Congress in Madhya Pradesh in government formation,” Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted on Wednesday morning.
BSP president Mayawati, who had been congratulated by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on her party’s performance on Tuesday, held a news conference in Delhi on Wednesday morning and said: “The BJP is still trying to play the numbers’ game to form the government in Madhya Pradesh. My party has decided to support the Congress there so that the BJP doesn’t succeed in its game plan.”
She said that although the voters didn’t want the Congress as a replacement of the BJP, they voted for the former “with a heavy heart”.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav Telegraph picture
