BENGALURU/BHOPAL: The political crisis in Madhya Pradesh seems far from over. Four sitting MLAs — Bisahulal Singh, Raghuraj Kansana and Hardeep Dang of the Congress party and Independent MLA Surendra Singh ‘Shera Bhaiya’ — who were reportedly brought to Bengaluru on Tuesday evening by a chartered flight, remained “out of bounds” for the Congress party despite massive efforts to reach them.

According to top sources, two more Congress MLAs from MP are likely to be brought to Bengaluru. However, sources told TNIE that in fact, eight MLAs from MP were brought on Tuesday and have been lodged at an undisclosed location in Bengaluru. But this could not be confirmed.

The Congress, meanwhile, claimed to have defused the crisis by getting some of its own and allied MLAs, who were allegedly taken by the BJP leaders to hotels in Gurugram, to return to the party fold.

According to informed sources, six Congress and allied MLAs, including Saniv Singh Kushwah (BSP), Rambai Thakur (suspended BSP MLA), Rajesh Shukla (SP), Ranvir Jatav, Kamlesh Jatav and Aidal Singh Kansana (all Congress) have returned. But at least four others have been shifted to Bengaluru.
The four legislators were reportedly lodged at a prime resort in Whitefield, the sources added.

“Their cell phones are switched off and we are unable to contact them,” a top Congress source told TNIE. The party has alleged that this was BJP’s ‘Operation Kamala redux’ in MP, where the Congress has a wafer thin majority.

The four MLAs, who were brought to Bengaluru on Tuesday evening, were whisked away to Chikkaamagaluru by road and were brought back to Bengaluru on Wednesday morning after the Karnataka Congress unit launched a manhunt for them.

We had checked all resorts, homestays and hotels in Chikamagaluru, but couldn’t find them,” the source added.

Senior Congress leader B K Hariprasad said BJP central leaders are responsible for the attempts to engineer defections in the Congress unit in MP. “They have done it in Karnataka and formed the government and now they are trying to do the same in MP. Our party MLAs are taken to Karnataka,” Hariprasad said.

The Congress leader also accused local BJP leaders of playing host to the MLAs from MP. However, when mediapersons asked Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa about it, he turned and walked away.In Bhopal, all the six MLAs who returned in the evening were straightaway taken to the CM’s residence, where Chief Minister Kamal Nath and party’s national general secretary in-charge for MP, Deepak Babaria, spoke to them. Senior Congress leaders and ministers P C Sharma and Surendra Baghel, claimed that the four MLAs also are in touch with Kamal Nath and will return to Bhopal soon.

“There is no threat anymore to the Kamal Nath government,” the duo claimed. In Delhi, meanwhile, former CM Digvijaya Singh, who had alleged BJP’s horse-trading plans only on Monday, alleged that the MLAs were forcefully taken by BJP leaders. “The MLAs were to be paid anything between Rs 25 crore and Rs 35 crore in installment first to influence Rajya Sabha polls and later to bring down the government,” alleged Singh.