Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath announced his resignation on Friday ahead of the scheduled floor test which was supposed to take place at 5pm. The senior Congress leader addressed the media in Bhopla nd talked about his government’s achievements since it was elected in December 2018.

“What was my fault all this while? In my entire political career, I have always believed in development. I tried my best to give Madhya Pradesh a new direction. The people here had given me five years to create a new state. I tried giving a new identity to Madhya Pradesh This was what I wanted to achieve,” Kamal Nath said.

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“The BJP has continuously plotted against my government. Every 15 days, a BJP leader would make a remark, saying this government is here only for a few months and won’t last long. They also held hostage our 22 MLAs in Karnataka. They’ve spent crores of rupees by luring our 22 legislators to the BJP camp. The BJP has planned this to kill democracy. The people of Madhya Pradesh will never forgive them,” Kamal Nath said.

“The BJP has always tried to destabilise the government. In the last 15 months, our government has done a lot for the farmers. The treachery is not done with me but 7.5 crore people. The BJP has betrayed the public mandate,” Kamal Nath said.

“The people of this country can see the truth behind the incident where MLAs are being held hostage in Bengaluru. The truth will come out. People will not forgive them,” he said.

“We wanted to make Madhya Pradesh more attractive for investment. BJP was scared that it may not return to power again in Madhya Pradesh. They thought they win by playing politics. But they have not been able to defeat my morale,” Kamal Nath told reporters.

After Assembly Speaker N P Prajapati accepted the resignation of the remaining 16 MLAs on Thursday the Kamal Nath government was struggling to prove ts majority in the floor test which was due on Friday. “I have accepted the resignation of the 16 MLAs who have filed petition in the Supreme Court. Based on what they have stated there, I am accepting resignation of these 16 MLAs also,” Prajapati told reporters.

The resignation of 22 MLAs, including six ministers loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia, had plunged the Congress-ruled government into crisis last week. After the speaker accepted the resignation of 16 more MLAs on Thursday night, the strength of Congress has come down to 92 from 108. The strength of the House has also been reduced to 206.

On Thursday, the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta directed that the test be by show of hands, and that the resignations of 16 rebel Congress MLAs, who had resigned earlier too were accepted by the Speaker and be provided security if they wished to participate in the proceedings. It also ordered that the proceedings be videographed.