Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. (File photo)

A day after ruling Congress in Madhya Pradesh claimed to have staved off a potential crisis for the Kamal Nath government, Hardeep Singh Dang, one of the three party legislators who are believed to be in Karnataka, purportedly resigned on Thursday.

Amid speculation that the ruling party had also managed to get a BJP legislator to quit, Narayan Tripathi, BJP MLA from Maihar, left the CM’s residence late evening and denied reports that he had quit.

Tripathi, one of two BJP MLAs who had voted against the party line last year, claimed to have gone to meet Nath to discuss his constituency’s development.

In a purported resignation letter circulated on WhatsApp, Dang, the Congress MLA from Suwasara, stated that he was hurt after being repeatedly ignored by Nath and other ministers.

Dang’s phone continued to remain switched off through Thursday evening, but Congress leaders said he is the “only casualty so far”.

Senior Congress leader and former CM Digvijaya Singh had alleged that the BJP had taken Congress MLAs Dang, Bisahulal Singh and Raghuraj Kansana to Karnataka in a chartered flight.

Independent MLA Surendra Singh Shera, who also went with them, is the only one so far to have spoken to the media over phone — he claimed to have gone to Karnataka with family.

Chief Minister Nath and Assembly Speaker N P Prajapati, whom Dang addressed in his letter, said they have received the news but were yet to receive the letter. Nath said Dang has neither spoken with him nor met him, so he would not comment on the issue until he meets the legislator.

Prajapati said he would take a call as and when Dang hands over his resignation letter in person.

The party admitted there was no word from the other two MLAs — Bisahulal’s son has lodged a missing complaint in Bhopal; there has been no word from Kansana.

The Congress in MP received another jolt on Thursday when two BSP and one SP MLAs ridiculed the charge that they were held hostage at a Gurgaon hotel.

BSP’s Rambai Singh and Sanjeev Singh, and the state’s lone SP lawmaker, Rajesh Shukla, said they had gone to Gurgaon on their own and sought action against ministers and Congress leaders who claimed they had been taken against their wish by BJP.

“How can anyone take us against our wish? I went on my own,’’ said Rambai, who is under suspension for going against the BSP line on the new citizenship law. “Nobody can touch me and get away without facing consequences,’’ she said when asked about some Congress leaders’ claim that she had been roughed up at the hotel.

Sanjeev Singh, BSP MLA from Bhind, said the Congress should penalise ministers and leaders who claimed that they had been held hostage. “If they (Congress) indeed freed us, why are they unable to free their own MLAs,’’ he asked, referring to the three Congress MLAs.

Shukla said, “It’s our misfortune that we agreed to return to Bhopal with Congress leaders on their plane.’’

All three had returned to Bhopal and met the CM on Wednesday. On Thursday, they denied the BJP offered them money or that they were flown to Delhi against their wish.

While Digvijaya stuck to his guns, claiming that the BJP had made two similar unsuccessful attempts in the past, state minister Jeetu Patwari changed tack on Thursday and claimed that he had never used words like “hostage or kidnapped’’, and that all he had said was the Congress had succeeded in exposing the BJP’s “conspiracy to topple the government”.

State BJP chief V D Sharma said Digvijaya should apologise for making such “baseless allegations”.

While forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections are seen as the immediate trigger for the rumblings in the Congress camp in MP, sources in BJP said the party is egging on the disgruntlement to tilt the scale against the Kamal Nath government far beyond the Rajya Sabha polls. Maintaining that the party’s central leadership is not involved, a source said senior state BJP leaders who command influence at the central leadership level are trying to pull the strings.

“We do not even need to wade into their (Congress’s) troubles. Just look at the remarks of those three ‘returned’ MLAs. The disgruntlement is writ large…” a BJP leader said.

“Rajya Sabha elections are secondary – our main aim would be the CM post,” confided another senior leader. —With inputs from ENS, Delhi