Ten rebel MLAs of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) wrote to the Mumbai Police commissioner on Tuesday claiming a threat to the lives during the visit of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Congress leader DK Shivakumar, ANI reported.
The legislators said in the letter that they do not want to meet Kumaraswamy or Shivakumar and requested police not to allow them to enter the hotel where they are staying. “We have heard that Kumar Swamy and DK Shivkumar and others are going to storm in the hotel premises, we feel threatened for the same,” the legislators said. The letter claimed the legislators were staying at Hotel Renaissance in Powai.
Although the letter claimed Kumaraswamy would be visiting Mumbai, ANI reported that only Shivakumar and Janata Dal (Secular) MLA Shivalinge Gowda were travelling to the city.
The signatories of the letter are Shivram Hebbar, Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, Byrati Basavraj, ST Somshekar, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Gopalaiyya, H Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda and Mahesh Kumutali.
The letter has been marked to the Zone 10 deputy commissioner of police, senior inspector of Powai police station, and the management of the hotel they are staying at.
Janata Dal (Secular) MLA Narayan Gowda, who is a signatory of the letter, said the MLAs have sought security when Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar visit Mumbai on Wednesday. “We have all written the letter together, we do not want to meet them,” Gowda told ANI. “We have asked for protection so they don’t force us.”
Gowda denied allegations of horse trading. “We have not come here for money and nobody is paying us,” he said. “We told them our problems hundred times but they did not listen, some ministers were having fun.”
Gowda said the MLAs were not satisfied with the coalition government as there was “no unity between the two parties”. He said: “Congress has also troubled HD Kumaraswamy a lot, they didn’t let him do what he wanted. We will meet the Speaker when he calls us, we’ve not left the party, only resigned as MLAs.”
Security outside the hotel was increased after the legislators wrote to the police chief, according to ANI. Maharashtra State Reserve Police Force and Riot Control Police were deployed the hotel. Additional Commissioner of Police (Northern Region) Dilip Sawant visited the hotel early on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar rejected the resignation letters of eight rebel MLAs for not being in order. He had asked them to send the letters as per the correct format. The speaker said he asked the 14 rebel MLAs to meet him on July 12 and July 13 as the letters they had submitted were not written in the required format.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs in Karnataka will protest outside the state legislature on Wednesday morning to demand Kumaraswamy’s resignation.
The 13-month-old Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government is on the verge of collapse after the resignations of 14 MLAs over the weekend. Independent legislators H Nagesh and R Shankar have also withdrawn support to the government. Meanwhile, all 30 ministers – 21 of the Congress and nine of the Janata Dal (Secular) – resigned from the Cabinet on Monday to accommodate the rebel MLAs in a bid to save the government. Kumaraswamy is expected to announce a new Cabinet soon.
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