Gujarat Cong MLAs return from K’taka ahead of today’s RS poll
AHMEDABAD/BENGALURU: 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.