Remaining four MLAs would return soon: Congress leader and Madhya Pradesh Minister Jaivardhan Singh

Three Congress MLAs and an independent legislator who were allegedly taken to Bengaluru by the BJP in an attempt to topple the Madhya Pradesh government will return soon, a state minister said on Thursday.

The BJP has denied the Congress' charge that the saffron party was trying to poach its MLAs in a bid to bring down the Kamal Nath government.

"We are in touch with our four MLAs and they will return home shortly," Congress leader and Madhya Pradesh Minister Jaivardhan Singh told reporters.

Asked when they will return, he said, "It is upto their wishes."

State Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza, meanwhile, said the "operation Kamal (actions of chief minister Kamal Nath) had triumphed over operation lotus (the alleged attempt by the BJP, whose symbol is lotus, to topple the government)."

The crisis had blown over on Wednesday itself and there was no threat to the Congress government, she claimed.

Oza also denied that the four MLAs -- Raghuraj Kansana, Hardeep Singh Dang and Bishulal Singh of the Congress and independent MLA Surendra Singh Shera -- were unhappy with the state government.

Like the six other MLAs who returned to Bhopal after being holed up in a hotel in Haryana, these four legislators too will come back, she said.

None of the four MLAs could be contacted over phone.

Earlier in the day, the MLAs of the SP and BSP who came back to Bhopal on a special plane arranged by Congress leaders denied that they had been `abducted' by BJP leaders.

While reaffirming support to the Congress government, BSP MLAs Ram Bai and Sanjeev Singh Kushwaha and SP legislator Rajesh Shukla denied that any BJP leader had contacted them.

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly has 114 Congress MLAs followed by the BJP which has 107 members.

The mark for simple majority is 116. Four independents, two MLAs of the BSP and one of the SP provide crucial support to the Congress government.

Two seats are vacant following the deaths of a Congress and a BJP legislator.