BENGALURU: All of Water Resources minister D K Shivakumar’s efforts in travelling from Bengaluru to Mumbai to have a word with the rebel MLAs of the coalition were washed away in the Mumbai rains on Wednesday after the legislators refused to entertain him.
Though a room was booked for him in the same hotel as the MLAs, Shivakumar was not just denied entry, but was stalled by Mumbai police after the 10 rebel legislators filed a complaint alleging threat by the Vokkaliga strongman. Later in the day, Shivakumar was detained along with JDS’ G T Devegowda, Shivalinge Gowda, former Union minister Milind Deora and former
Maharashtra minister Naseem Khan before he was allegedly forcibly ‘deported’.Shivakumar, however, did not head back without leaving a mark. The minister who arrived outside the hotel on Wednesday, questioned the Mumbai police’s decision to stop him from entering it. “I have reservations at the hotel. I am a citizen of this country. I don’t have any weapons and I am not a threat. I only have a heart. Why am I not being allowed?’ Shivakumar asked.
Hours before Shivakumar landed in Mumbai, the 10 legislators wrote to the Mumbai police commissioner seeking protection.
In the letter written by the 10 legislators to the Mumbai police commissioner seeking protection, they said, “We have heard that Kumaraswamy, Shivakumar and others are going to storm the hotel premises, we feel threatened. We do not want to meet him. We request you to help us in this matter and not allow them to enter the hotel premises.”
“I haven’t even showered or had coffee. Let us inside so we can freshen up and rest,” Shivakumar told the police while addressing the media. The Congress, while criticising the Devendra Fadnavis-led-BJP government in Maharashtra for insulting an elected representative, also raised questions over the presence of BJP leaders from Karnataka like R Ashok in the hotel and their interaction with the MLAs.
Refusing to leave the premises, Shivakumar and the others sat outside the hotel braving rains and even eating on the road. “We have not asked him to come here and we will not meet him now,” Ramesh Jarkiholi, one of the rebel MLAs told the media. “I have immense respect for him and do not want him to be humiliated like this. I appeal to him to go back and assure him that I will personally go and meet him once I am back in Bengaluru,” said ST Somashekhar. But Shivakumar would have none of it. It was not until he was detained and whisked away by the police that Shivakumar budged from the spot.