BENGALURU: A chartered aircraft carrying an important group, 10 MLAs of the coalition government who resigned on Saturday, has reached Mumbai. It has been confirmed that 13 MLAs in all have tendered their resignations.
The group left Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru after being cloistered with the Governor for over an hour. After making a brief statement to the media, the group immediately left of the HAL airport where a chartered flight was waiting. The flight, with call sign VT-JUI, is registered with a group owned by a BJP leader, sources said.
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A Bombardier Challenger 350, the aircraft according to sources was hired by leaders from the BJP to facilitate the exit of these MLAs from the sphere of influence of the Congress and JDS troubleshooters. However, BJP leaders defended the hiring of the aircraft and said that it belonged to a charter company and could have been hired by anyone.
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But sources in the coalition government said that everything had been planned for Saturday since a few days back. Right from booking a place in UB City in Bengaluru to taking the MLAs to the Vidhana Soudha in a transport vehicle with protection, to prevent counter poaching. The aircraft and the hospitality extended to the MLAs once they landed has also been in the pipeline for some days, coalition sources said.
Here's the list of MLAs who tendered resignation:
Pratapgoud Patil
Byreti Basavaraj
Ramesh Jarkiholi
H Viswhanath
Ramalinga Reddy
S T Somashekar
Gopaliah
Anand Singh
Shivaram Hebbar
Munirathna
BC Patil
KC Narayana gowda
Mahesh Kumtalli