Gujarat Cong MLAs return from K’taka ahead of today’s RS poll
The 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat, who were flown to Karnataka to keep them safe from alleged poaching attempts by the BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday, reached Anand under police protection on Monday.
The MLAs were shifted to a resort near Bengaluru by the Congress that wants to ensure the election of its senior leader Ahmed Patel, who is contesting for one of three seats to the Upper House. Patel needs the support of 45 MLAs to be re-elected and the Congress is doing everything it can to keep its flock together.
The Congress legislators were ferried from the resort near Bengaluru, where they have been staying since July 29, in two buses, and were accompanied by Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar
They caught a flight at 2.40am to Ahmedabad from the Kempegowda International Airport. Before their departure, they were felicitated in the traditional Karnataka style and were each given Mysore petas, the traditional head gear.
From Ahmedabad, they reached a resort in Khandhali a day before the crucial Rajya Sabha poll to be with their families on occasion of the Hindu festival of Rakshabandhan. Their families have also been brought to the resort to mark the festival.
The Neejanand Resort, where they will be staying until they are taken for the voting, is in Anand district, the stronghold of state president Bharatsinh Solanki.
Police protection was provided after the MLAs wrote to Gujarat Speaker Ramanlal Vora and the Election Commission from Ben- galuru seeking security.
“The resort has been given total protection. It has been guarded from within as well as outside at all the entry points. The arrangement has been supervised by a deputy superintendent of police level officer,’’ said Anand SP Saurabh Singh.
The police, however, refused to reveal the details about the security arrangement for the election on Tuesday when they will be taken from the resort to the Vidhan Sabha in Gandhinagar.
They are expected to meet Patel in the evening.
Six of the Congress MLAs, including former CM Shankersinh Vaghela’s close aides, were not taken to Bengaluru and have not been brought to the resort.
The Congress took the 44 legislators out of Gujarat after six of them resigned before the polls, where in its lone candidate Patel is in the contest against the three BJP candidates including party chief Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and Congress turn coat Balwantsinh Rajput.
After battling for his life for nearly seven hours, a 30-yearold man from Tamil Nadu who was seriously injured in a road accident died on Monday after being allegedly denied treatment by various hospitals in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram.
The man was taken to at least two private hospitals in an ambulance after the accident late on Sunday night, police said.
However, as there were no bystanders, the hospitals refused to admit him, they said.
Kollam police commissioner Ajitha Begum said the ambulance driver’s complaint had been received.
Two hospitals in Kollam, including medi city, allegedly denied treatment to the patient.
“A case of medical negligence has been registered against them,” the police commissioner told news agency PTI.
Though the patient was taken to the Thiruvananthapuram medical college, treatment could not be provided as the emergency room was full, she said.
The seriously injured patient was in the ambulance for nearly seven hours.
The ambulance driver said they were informed after nearly two hours that there was no ventilator facility available at the Trivandrum medical college and the patient was sent back.
“This is a wrong precedent.. We have got a complaint and we will enquire if private hospitals refused admission,” she said.
The deceased, Murugan, hailing from Tirunelveli was seriously injured in a motorbike accident at 11 pm on Sunday and died around 6am on Monday.
POLICE COMMISSIONER SAID A CASE OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE HAS BEEN REGISTERED AGAINST THE TWO HOSPITALS