Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jul 16: The Congress refuses to give up. It continues to follow the policy of threatening the unhappy legislators by holding out disqualification threat. For some others who it knows do not get bogged down by threats, it has been trying to make offers so that they wean away from the BJP and returns to the party fold.

The 119-member strong coalition government in the state, which once enjoyed absolute majority, is tottering at 101 after 16 legislators and two independents went out. The BJP now has a strength of 107 with the support of two independents, as a result of which the chief minister has to get support of 108 legislators at least to survive the no confidence scare.

Congress leaders (file photo)

A member of the state cabinet revealed that the party's tactics had almost succeeded in the case of M T B Nagaraj. Nagaraj however changed his mind later, after which the party leadership laid bare his antecedents. The party has also been trying to make full use of the anti-defection law by filing petition seeking disqualification of MLAs B C Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, S T Somashekhar, Pratapagouda Patil, Byrati Basavaraj, Anand Singh, Roshan Baig and Muniratna. Similar petitions were filed against Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli a few months back. The party argues that in most of the cases, disqualification petition was received first and resignations came thereafter, which means that disqualification issue should be decided first. The Congress leaders believe that their MLAs currently holed up in Mumbai are jittery about their prospects.

Minister D K Shivakumar, asserts that anti defection law is strong enough and hence insisted that the dissident MLAs of the party will change their minds and support the trust motion. There is also hope that leaders who have never changed the party even once in their long career so far and have remained with the Congress will not go elsewhere. A leader close to Shivakumar's group said that the party has been in touch with some of the rebels to whom incentives matching those held out by the BJP have been offered.