MP minister held trying to meet rebels in Bengaluru

BENGALURU/BHOPAL: High drama prevailed at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Thursday when Madhya Pradesh minister Jitu Patwari attempted to enter the premises where 23 rebel Congress MLAs who have resigned their vidhan sabha membership are holed up. Following a mild scuffle, police arrested Patwari under IPC section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging her/his duty) and later released him on station bail.
In a bid to persuade the rebels to return to the Congress fold, Patwari and Lakhan Singh Yadav, another MP minister, had arrived in Bengaluru. They were accompanied by the father of one of the MLAs — Manoj Choudhary.
In a video of the incident which was widely shared, Patwari is seen attempting to enter the resort, while policemen are preventing him. It also showed the minister in a heated argument with police. At a press conference in Bhopal, senior Congress members Digvijaya Singh and Vivek Tankha showed a dramatic video in which Patwari, Yadav and Choudhary are shoved around by unidentified people.
“This is a case of abduction and forced captivity,” Tankha said, adding, “You abduct and take our MLAs to a different region, and hold them hostage. They cannot even contact their families as their mobile phones have been taken away. They are not there out of free will. A BJP delegation led by senior leaders takes resignations from MLAs on Holi and returns to Bhopal to submit them to the Speaker. No one knows under what circumstances these resignations were taken from our MLAs.”
Tankha demanded that the Congress MLAs be “released” immediately. “We are consulting Kapil Sibal (former Union minister and Supreme Court lawyer) and, maybe, we will move Supreme Court and tell how the country’s democracy is in danger. What BJP is doing is a criminal act and an unbiased probe should be conducted by the apex court because BJP-led Centre will not be interested,” he said.
However, cops said the MLAs from MP had recently written to the Karnataka DGP seeking police protection. Nineteen Congress MLAs who are loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia had said in the letter that they had come to Karnataka “voluntarily” on “important work”, police said.
Bengaluru city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao told TOI that the MLAs had given a written requisition saying “some politicians” from their home state were flying down to meet them and they don’t want to meet anyone. “So we set up a police force outside the place. Jitu Patwari not only tried to forcibly enter the place, but also manhandled police trying to stop him,” Rao said. Karnataka Congress condemned the police action and demanded an apology from CM BS Yediyurappa.
State Congress described Patwari’s arrest as “goonda behaviour of Karnataka BJP government” and demanded that the MLAs be “released” immediately. “Chief minister BS Yediyurappa has to apologise for the mistake,” state Congress tweeted.
Later in the evening, Patwari and newly appointed KPCC president DK Shivakumar held a press briefing claiming that Bengaluru police was acting on behalf of the ruling party and not even allowing family members meet “kidnapped” legislators from MP. “It is possible that a few people are trying to put a psychological pressure by putting forth the image of Jyotiraditya Scindia. But why are you (MLAs) trying to sacrifice the people’s mandate? I urge my family of Congress legislators to not fall into this trap of BJP,” said Patwari.
Shivakumar said he was not involved “in any way” with the MP crisis and was only helping his “friends, leaders and colleagues” from Congress.