Bhopal The Supreme Court's order that the Kamal Nath government of Madhya Pradesh face a floor test in the assembly on Friday triggered relief and led to an air of celebration among Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs sequestered in a resort in Sehore district since the night of March 15, party leaders said.

Among Congress MLAs housed in a hotel in the heart of Bhopal, it gave way to consternation given the absence of 16 rebellious colleagues who turned against the party and the state government following senior leader Jyotiradiya Scindia's decision earlier this month to join the BJP. "There is apprehension among MLAs as to what will happen in the floor test on Friday in absence of 16 of our MLAs staying in Bengaluru," a minister in the Congress government said, requesting anonymity.

"But a section of them are relieved too with the feeling that we must be prepared to face what is going to happen. However, we are confident that something big would happen on the day and it would be in our favour."

The BJP MLAs, about 100 in number, were flown back to Bhopal on Sunday night from Gurugram, where they were taken on March 11, to attend the budget session. After the House was adjourned on Monday, the MLAs were to be flown to Gurugram the same night by a chartered plane.

Eventually, the party decided to cancel the trip to Gurugram, given the possibility of the apex court ruling in favour of a floor test, and the legislators were instead put up in the resort in neighbouring Sehore district.

"Though we didn't know what would be the Supreme Court's verdict, we asked ourselves what would happen in case the court gives its verdict for a floor test. In that situation it would have been difficult to the arrange return of the MLAs from Gurugram immediately," a senior BJP leader said.

"As the legal battle was getting extended, there was worry in the BJP MLAs as to how long it would go and how long they would have to remain away from their families. That's why, of late, we allowed the family members of the MLAs to meet them at the resort. There were sports activities and entertainment for them."

Another BJP leader said the party hired a private agency to arrange security for the MLAs "after a number of Congress leaders and workers from Sehore reached the resort and wanted to give roses to our MLAs as a mark of protest."

State BJP spokesperson Dr Hitesh Bajpai said the party wasn't worried about its MLAs being poached. "...but we shifted our MLAs to a resort to avoid any unpleasant situation due to anti-democratic and anti-constitutional practices of the Congress."

State Congress spokesperson Durgesh Sharma said Congressa MLAs were united to thwart attempts by the BJP to "hijack the government." "They were in the hotel to exchange thoughts... Digvijaya Singh has already said only those would remain in Congress who believe in its ideology."