BENGALURU/BELAGAVI: After a breather, the coalition government headed by HD Kumaraswamy seems to be heading towards another crisis as reports of a group of dissident Congress MLAs heading to Mumbai put the party bosses on their toes on Saturday.
The reports from a section of electronic media about some MLAs having secretly moved to a resort in Juhu in Mumbai on Saturday in a bid to quit the party allegedly under BJP’s “Operation Lotus” caused ripples in the Congress camp.
Attempts made by Express to contact some of the MLAs ‘missing’ from their constituencies failed as they did not respond. However, MLA Mahesh Kumathalli of Athani, a close associate of minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, said he would not comment on where he was staying and whether he was with the MLAs in the Mumbai resort.
Meanwhile, a luncheon meeting of Congress MLAs M T B Nagaraj from Hosakote and Sudhakar from Chikkaballapur with independent MLA from Mulabagal H Nagesh provided more grist for the speculations as the trio hit the highway towards Chennai in the same car.
When contacted, Nagaraj said they were going on personal work. While the buzz is about the trio heading towards Mumbai from Chennai, KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao in a hurriedly convened press meet rubbished the reports.
Appealing to the media not to speculate and mislead the people about the fate of the government, Rao said, “All our MLAs are in touch with us.”According to sources, some Congress rebels recently entered into a secret ‘pact’ with Maharashtra BJP to bring down the government.
No MLA is going to Mumbai says Dinesh Gundu Rao
State Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “I have spoken to M T B Nagaraj and none of them are going to Mumbai. All our MLAs will participate in the Congress Legislature Party meeting convened by CLP leader Siddaramaiah on September 25. B C Patil who had gone on a temple visit to Sholapur in Maharashtra has returned. I have spoken to Sudhakar as well who is coming back to Bengaluru. It is high time the media stopped speculating.”
According to sources close to the Chief Minister, intelligence sleuths have been instructed to keep a watch on the movements of disgruntled Congress and JD(S) MLAs.
The legal cell of JD(S) met Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Sunil Kumar and submitted a representation for booking cases against BJP leaders B S Yeddyurappa, R Ashok and Shobha Karandlaje for their alleged attempts to lure Congress and JD(S) MLAs using illegal means.
JD(S) leadership is also mulling to submit a similar representation to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
GOVERNMENT IS STABLE: HD KUMARASWAMY
CM H D Kumaraswamy who was offering puja at Sringeri Sharada temple when he received reports of the alleged plans of some Congress MLAs heading to Mumbai, said, “Government is strong and stable. No one is deserting us.”