BENGALURU: Accusing the Karnataka police of siding with the BJP, newly-appointed Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar warned them that his party will go to any lengths if the police refuse to act as per law. “We met the commissioner as well as the DG&IGP. They have no answers as to why we cannot meet our own legislators. BJP leaders are allowed entry but we aren’t. We have told the police that if our MLAs are not freed and BJP workers are not removed from the resort, we will do what we have to,” Shivakumar warned, talking to the media, and added that the police should work as per the Constitution and not for a party.
A day after rebel Congress MLAs of Madhya Pradesh lashed out at MP chief minister Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, the latter landed at their doorsteps. A senior Congress leader and party’s Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh, Singh demanded that he be allowed to meet his “voters”. “These MLAs are going to be the losers,” he said at a press conference at the Congress headquarters later on Wednesday alongside Shivakumar. “Many of them are first-time MLAs and they are aborting their careers with this. (Jyotiraditya) Scindia is using them and will be the only gainer,” Singh said. On March 10, Scindia quit the Congress and joined the BJP, which has made him the Rajya Sabha candidate from MP.
After denied entry into the resort, Singh sat in protest and was detained by the police. Scores of Congress workers and leaders accompanied Singh to the Commissioner’s office and then to the DGP’s office, but to no avail. “It is not important whether we form a government or not but democracy should go in the right direction. We should respect the mandate, but unfortunately, Modi and Shah don’t think so,” Singh said, accusing the BJP of trying to topple a duly-elected government.
Asserting that as a Rajya Sabha candidate, it was his right to meet his party MLAs to seek their votes, Singh said the police had no reason to arrest him. “The resort is a public premise. Anyone can meet anyone. Why should the police stop me? If the guests didn’t want to meet me, they could have stayed in their rooms. Under what law was I stopped? Why was I detained by the Karnataka police,” Singh asked. “The BJP has paid for charted flights for the MLAs. BJP leaders are accompanying them and the party BJP is paying for their room and food bills. Then the BJP says it is the internal matter of the Congress,” Singh pointed out.