Karnataka: 2 missing MLAs keep Congress, JD(S) on edge

Bengaluru: As the Supreme Court fixed the Karnataka floor test for Saturday, the matter of a Congress MLA is said to be in hiding while another one who vanished just before boarding the party bus as the game of thrones continues to provoke curiosity.

Vijayanagara MLA Anand Singh, a mining baron who was in jail with controversial former BJP minister and fellow mine lord G Janardhan Reddy, has been “missing” from the time the results of assembly polls came out on Tuesday. There has been much speculation that Reddy had managed to get him onto the BJP’s side and that he was not with the other Congress MLAs for that reason. Singh left the BJP and joined the Congress just before the assembly elections on May 12.

“He has gone underground because he is trying to figure out whether he should stay with the Congress or go with the BJP,” one of Singh’s associates told ET on condition of anonymity. “He has not made up his mind, though the BJP has put a lot of pressure on him to join the party.” The Congress alleged that the BJP was using the Enforcement Directorate and the cases pending against Singh for him to switch sides. “He is a Congress member, he has won on our party ticket and he is with us. The BJP is trying every possible way to get him,” said Congress leader D K Shivakumar.


A BJP leader, however, said: “We don’t know where Singh is.”

Speculation was rife that Singh had sent a letter to the Supreme Court extending support to the Congress, while another section claimed that he had resigned from the Congress. “I have not got any letter of either sort from Singh,” Congress state unit president G Parameshwara said. “They say Singh is right here in Bengaluru and not anywhere else,” he said, amid rumours that Singh might be in Delhi.

Adding colour to post-poll uncertainties was Maski MLA Pratapgouda Patil, who won against the BJP’s Bsanagouda Turvihal by a mere 272 votes. He was with the Congress legislators till late night on Wednesday, but reportedly “slipped away” before they boarded the bus to go to the resort where they were all staying. “We are told Patil is also in Bengaluru. He has signed the letter of support for JDS’ HD Kumaraswamy. I am hoping he will come back,” Parameshwara said.