Congress, JDS legislators reach, leave Hyderabad

HYDERABAD|BENGALURU: Congress and JDS MLAs from Karnataka, who arrived in Hyderabad to evade ‘BJP poaching’, had to rush back within hours after the Supreme Court ordered Yeddyurappa to complete the trust vote on Saturday. The court’s swift decision created a hectic travel schedule for BJP MLAs too and there was scramble to reach Bengaluru, with some MLAs travelling long distance from North Karnataka. Most legislators reached Bengaluru by late Friday night and were put up in a five-star hotel.

The remaining few are expected to reach only by Saturday morning. Congress and JDS MLAs reached Hyderabad amid uncertainty over the outcome of the appeal before the Supreme Court . Congress MLAs checked into Taj Krishna and JDS into Novotel .

Congress’ DK Shivakumar said 116 MLAs were with them, apart from claiming “some BJP legislators were in touch” with them. Senior Congress leader Guduru Narayana Reddy told journalists at Taj Krishna that all Congress and JDS MLAs wi l l leave by road to reach Bengaluru by Saturday morning. Reddy said they decided to take the road route despite availability of chartered flights as “there may be last-minute denial of permissions to fly”. He repeated the combine’s allegation that the MLAs were not allowed to fly out of Bengaluru airport on Thursday night.


Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy and others supervised the arrangements for Congress and JDS MLAs at the hotels amid tight police security and reported movements of Karnataka and central intelligence sleuths. Former deputy speaker of Andhra assembly and senior Congress leader Bhatti Vikramarka told ET that strategies to be adopted at the floor test in Karnataka assembly scheduled for Saturday were discussed at the Congress legislature party meeting.

In another development, JDS president HD Deve Gowda reached the temple town of Tirupati to seek the blessings of lord Balaji on his birthday. Meanwhile, Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu criticised Karnataka governor’s choice of pro-tem Speaker. Welcoming the Supreme Court order, Naidu tweeted, “governor should have followed the democratic conventions in appointing pro-tem Speaker. We expect that the spirit of the Supreme Court judgment will be protected.”