After the plan to fly their MLAs out of Karnataka could not take off, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) ferried their lawmakers in buses to keep them from being allegedly poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The responsibility of transporting the Congress-JD(S) MLAs ahead of Karnataka floor test, out of the state and bringing them back was given to Sharma Transports, and with good reason.
Sharma Transports was chosen due to the history of loyalty of its owners to the Congress party. Fearing that they will be lured by BJP before the vote of confidence in Karnataka Assembly, Congress and JD(S) MLAs are travelling only in Sharma Transports' buses. The transport agency was established by late Congressman Dhanraj Parasamal Sharma. He hailed from Rajasthan and was active in Karnataka Congress circles back in 1980s. Around this time, he also tried to enter active politics and contested Lok Sabha election twice from Bengaluru South constituency on a Congress ticket, but lost both times.
In the 1980 Lok Sabha election, Sharma came close to beating JNP's TR Shamanna, getting 45.13 per cent votes as opposed to the latter's 45.76 per cent votes. Contesting his second Lok Sabha poll in 1998, he was defeated by BJP's Ananth Kumar by a margin of more than 1.8 lakh votes. He passed away in 2001.
Sharma was reportedly close to former prime ministers PV Narsimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi, and Indira Gandhi. As of now, Sharma Transports is owned by his son, Suresh Sharma, who was also Secretary of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.