New Delhi: The political slugfest in Madhya Pradesh inches towards its climax as Governor Lalji Tandon directed CM Kamal Nath to seek a trust vote on Monday. He also asked the Assembly Speaker Narmada Prasad Prajapati to conduct the floor test on Monday.

Late Saturday night, CM was directed to seek a trust vote in the Assembly soon after his (governor) address on March 16. A letter from the governor was sent to the chief minister in this regard around midnight.

"I came to know that 22 MLAs have sent their resignations to the MP Assembly speaker and they have also informed about it on electronic and print media. I have seen the coverage on both media with attention," the letter, dated March 14, said.

"They have also sent the letter to me separately on March 10, 2020 and the same MLAs have requested for security to present these resignation letters to the Vidhan Sabha speaker on March 13," the governor said.

"Under Article 174 and 175(2) of the Constitution, I am empowered to direct that MP Assembly session will begin on March 16 at 11 am with my address. Soon after that the only work to be done is voting on trust vote," he said in the letter.

Speaker accepts resignation of 6 MLAs:

The Assembly Speaker of the state, Narmada Prasad Prajapati, on Saturday accepted the resignations of six Congress MLAs. The resignations of Tulsi Silawat, Govind Singh Rajput, Prabhuram Choudhry, Imarti Devi, Pradyumn Singh Tomar and Mahendra Singh Sisodia have been accepted by the Speaker.

Kamal Nath writes to Amit Shah:

Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting him to 'ensure that 22 Congress MLAs who have been kept in Bengaluru, are able to reach Madhya Pradesh safely to participate in Assemby Session which starts March 16, without any fear.'

Congress to approach SC:

Meanwhile, the Congress has decided to approach the Supreme Court. The Madhya Pradesh Congress has issued a whip to all its MLAs asking them to be present in the House from March 16 to April 13 during the Assembly session and vote in favour of the government during the floor test.

The crisis in a nutshell:

The Kamal Nath government in the state is on the brink of collapse after 22 MLAs, supporters of Jyotiraditya Scindia who had quit the Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resigned. These six MLAs were sacked from the Kamal Nath government after they, along with 16 other legislators, resigned in support of Scindia.

With this, the strength of the House is down to 222, with the majority mark 112. Before the rebellion early this week, the Congress's tally was 114. It also had the support of four Independent MLAs, two legislators from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one from the Samajwadi Party (SP).

The opposition BJP had demanded a trust vote on Sunday before the session starts on Monday.