New Delhi: Twenty-two rebel Congress MLAs, whose resignations from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly had led to the fall of the Kamal Nath government, joined the BJP on Saturday, national general secretary of the party Kailash Vijayvargiya said.

These leaders, along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, met BJP president J P Nadda, who welcomed their decision to join the saffron party.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to field them in the bypolls necessitated by their resignations.

These former MLAs, believed to be Scindia loyalists, met Nadda at his residence. Vijayvargiya was also present there.

The Assembly speaker had accepted the resignations of 16 of these rebel Congress MLAs on Thursday, a day before Chief Minister Kamal Nath chose to resign after it became clear that his government had lost the majority.

The speaker had accepted the resignations of six of them earlier.

Scindia, a former Union minister, quit the Congress and joined the BJP recently.

The saffron party is likely to stake claim to form the government in Madhya Pradesh.

The Election Commission will announce the bypoll dates once the crisis brought in by the coronavirus outbreak is over.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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