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Updated: Jul 25, 2019 12:53 IST

Hours after two BJP’s legislators supported a bill in the Madhya Pradesh assembly brought by the Congress-led government, with one of the lawmakers saying it was “ghar wapsi” (homecoming), senior leaders of the opposition party went into a huddle.

Sources in the party said that the meeting at the state BJP headquarters on Wednesday night was held to assess what went wrong in gauging the mood of the MLAs and Congress’ engineering defection plan.

The meeting cane after Narayan Tripathi and Sharad Kol, who were with the Congress earlier, voted for the Criminal Procedure Code (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2019, brought in by the Kamal Nath-led government.

The meeting was attended by the BJP’s state unit president Rakesh Singh, who rushed from Delhi to Bhopal in the night after the unprecedented development, leader of the opposition Gopal Bhargava, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former parliamentary affairs minister Narottam Mishra among others, sources added.

They said the meeting remained inconclusive on the fate of Tripathi from Maihar assembly constituency and Kol from Beohari seat. The leaders are expected to meet on Thursday as well.

“The party will not expel the MLAs from the organisation as it may help them get the status of unattached members in the House,” a senior party leader, who is not authorised to speak to media, said.

“Most likely, the party leadership will make efforts to see the MLAs are disqualified as members of the House. However, a final decision on the next course of action will be taken as per opinion and instructions from the party’s central leadership in Delhi,” the leader quoted above said.

During the meeting, sources said, a section of the leaders said that when there was a division of votes the BJP MLAs should have boycotted the proceedings and staged a walk-out.

They also said, if asked for an explanation, Tripathi and Kol may buttress their position by saying that since Bhargava had earlier announced the opposition’s support to the bill in the House so they exactly did what they were supposed to do - voted in favour of the bill.

“The party leadership is looking into the entire matter,” the BJP’s state spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said.

The Congress’ spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said the BJP leaders sought to create chaos in the state by making statements almost daily that the government would fall.

“They behaved like immature leaders but the Congress showed with a sense of authority,” Chaturvedi said.

The dramatic developments in Madhya Pradesh came a day after the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance lost a trust vote to the BJP by six votes. And BJP’s leaders in the state said the Kamal Nath-led government in the central state will face the same fate.

Former chief minister Chouhan on Wednesday likened the MP dispensation to the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka and said the BJP shouldn’t be held responsible if the state government collapsed.

“Political monsoon is progressing from Goa and Karnataka. It’s MP which will be hit by the monsoon soon,” Bhargava said.

In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly, the Congress has 114 MLAs and is supported by the BSP with two members, the Samajwadi Party with one, and four independent lawmakers. The BJP has 108 legislators and one seat is vacant. The halfway mark is 115.