Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Jan 15: As leaders of Congress party have already admitted, three of its legislators are in Mumbai and are more than willing to join hands with the BJP. Sources say that these three legislators are trying to take more MLAs with them to the BJP camp. A total of 15 Congress MLAs are supposed to be preparing to cross over to the opposition in a bid to make the coalition government crumble. Sources within Congress party and certain media have suspicion about who will be these 15 legislators.
Minister, D K Shivakumar, has indirectly admitted that Ramesh Jarkiholi is engineering these plans. Jarkiholi supposedly has been camping in Mumbai along with his two trusted lieutenants since the last some days. He is expected to meet national BJP president, Amit Shah, either on Tuesday or Wednesday.
State Congress is having sleepless nights over the prospects of Jarkiholi taking with him some more party MLAs. Already Congress MLAs, Srimanth Patil and Mahesh Kamatalli, it is said, are accompanying him. BJP with 104 MLAs needs support of a minmum of nine legislators to be able to prove majority and form government. It is believed that the party has contacted 15 legislators from Congress and JD(S) who are said to be ready to join BJP.
It is said that BJP is in touch with Raichur rural MLA, Basanagouda Daddal, B C Patil from Hirekeroor, Umesh Jadhav from Chincholi, Anand singh from Vijayanagara, Ganesh from Kampli, Devendra Chauhan from Nagatana, Amaregouda Bayyapura from Kushtagi, R Shankar from Ranebennur, H Nagesh from Mulbagal, and Ashwin Kumar M from T Narasipura constituency.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee which met urgently on Monday morning is learnt to have authorized D K Shivakumar to go to Mumbai and convince Jarkiholi and his two friends not to leave Congress party. In the meantime, BJP, which has kept all its MLAs at Gurugram near New Delhi, is said to be planning something big. State president of BJP, Yeddyurappa, however claims that the legislators were kept at Gurugram to escape from the plans of Congress and JD(S) leaders to woo BJP legislators into their parties through horse-trading to further stabilize the government. The KPCC president and working president have contacted the MLAs who are said to be in touch with BJP, and tried to prevail on them to change their minds.