Bhopal, Nov 1 : A week-long celebration has been organised by the state government to mark the occasion of 67th foundation day of Madhya Pradesh, which came into existence on November 1, 1956. Interestingly, the state was divided into two on the same date in 2000 giving rise to a new state -- Chhattisgarh. Although the history of the Madhya Pradesh legislature can be traced back to 1913 when the Central Provinces Legislative Council was formed, the present-day Madhya Pradesh came into existence on 1 November 1956 following the reorganisation of states. It was created by merging the erstwhile four states - Mahakaushal, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal. Initially, the strength of the Madhya Pradesh's Vidhan Sabha was 288, which was later enhanced to 321, including one nominated member, which later in 2000 (after separation of Chhattisgarh) reduced to 230 seats. Besides 230 members directly elected by the people of the state, there used to be a nominated member, however, the system of nominated members was abolished in 2003. "Till 2003, the strength of Madhya Pradesh Assembly was 231 as besides 230 elected members, there used to be a nominated member also in the parliamentary system. However, the process of nominating a member, which used to be the representative of the government, was stopped," said state Assembly speaker Girish Gautam. In the last 66 years, as many as 15 Assembly elections were held, including the last one in 2018 and the next the 16th Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in November-December 2023. Most of the time the state was ruled by the national political parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, except for a couple of years when Sanyukta Vidhayak Dal led by Govind Narayan Singh (rebel of the Congress and later merged with the party again). Since the formation of Madhya Pradesh, the state has been ruled by 18 Chief Ministers, some of them twice, Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the longest serving Chief Minister. Out of over 17 years, the BJP ruled after 2003, the current Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held the post for over 15 years. The Congress won the last elections in 2018. However, it collapsed within 18 months after Jyotiraditya Scindia along with 20 other MLAs joined the BJP and saffron party romped back in power in 2020. Speaker Girish Gautam further said that the separation of the state had become the need of hour as being a huge state, the people in the remote areas were deprived of government schemes. "The demand for formation of Chhattisgarh was much before 2000, and it was a good decision of the Centre. Because of it, both the states have witnessed tremendous growth since then," he added. /IANS