By Express News Service
HYDERABAD: After a 14-hour-long drama replete with suspense and uncertainty, Congress and JD(S) legislators from Karnataka who drove into Hyderabad on Friday morning returned to their home State late night to face the floor test on Saturday. Theday ended with JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy alleging that two of his party MLAs had been hijacked by the BJP.
Over a 100 Congress and 37 JD(S) MLAs camped in two different star hotels in the city for about 14 hours to ‘escape’ any poaching attempts by the saffron party. ‘’The BJP has hijacked two of our MLAs.
One of them is in Kochi and is going back to Bengaluru and the other MLA’s whereabouts are not known. But I am hopeful that both will return at the time of the floor test tomorrow,” alleged Kumaraswamy.“The BJP is indulging in horse trading, but we also have friends within the saffron party. If they come forward to support us, we will consider them,” he said while alleging that several of them were offered huge amounts by the saffron party. “The BJP is trying to work their way undemocratically.
The interim-Governor KG Bopaiah has invited the BJP cadre even though they don’t have the numbers,’’ Kumaraswamy said.The JD(S) leader said that though Congress and his party had sent a list of MLAs required to form a stable government, it had been put aside. “The Supreme Court gave a historic judgement, inviting all MLAs to come to the floor and show their strength. This is why, we are all going back and we will definitely show our strength,” Kumaraswamy added.
Earlier in the day, both Congress and JD (S) MLAs were engaged in brainstorming sessions, trying to re-draw theirstrategies for tomorrow. In the evening, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah flew in to Hyderabad in achartered flight from Bengaluru and headed straight to Taj Krishna where he convened the CLP meeting. Emerging from the meeting hours later, he said: “the Congress and JD(S) are together. I am 100 per cent confident that we will win in the floor test on Saturday.’’
