1 more MP Congress MLA joins BJP, third in 12 days

INDORE/BHOPAL: In another blow to Congress in just 12 days, Narayan Singh Patel resigned as MLA from Mandhata, in Khandwa, and joined BJP on Thursday. Congress is thus reduced to 89 seats in the 230-member House, and there will now be 27 bypolls in MP.
Like Sumitra Devi Kasdekar, who had walked out of Congress on July 17, Patel was a loyalist of former PCC chief Arun Yadav. Both of them are first-time MLAs. And five days before this, Pradyumna Singh Lodhi had quit Congress and was promptly handed a post by the BJP government. Patel submitted his resignation to pro tem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma on Wednesday.
Patel, 63, was welcomed into the saffron fold by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and party state president V D Sharma.