Karnataka turmoil: Congress booked Hyd hotel rooms for ‘marriage party’ for MLAs

Hyderabad: Amid the fears of defection to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), MLAs of Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD-S) were shifted to Hyderabad hotel from Eagleton Resort in Bengaluru, and the rooms were booked in the name of ‘marriage party’ to ‘maintain secrecy’.

To accommodate more than 100 MLAs, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) had to gear up after TPCC received a call from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) around midnight asking TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy to host over 100 MLAs, said top sources as per a report by The Hindu.

“They wanted 100 rooms which were difficult to arrange at that unearthly hour. We tried to book resorts on the outskirts but they were full. We selected Park Hyatt but still, they were not enough. We then sent one senior leader to Taj Krishna and woke up the top managers asking them to book 100 rooms for a marriage party. A cash deposit of ₹ 12 lakh was made towards the rooms and food,” a senior Congress leader involved in the arrangements told The Hindu on condition of anonymity on Friday.

Also Read: JD(S) and Congress MLAs shifted to hotel Park Hyatt in Hyderabad

However, after the Supreme Court ordered that the floor test would be conducted on Saturday, the MLAs on Friday left Hotel Taj Krishna in Hyderabad for Bengaluru to participate in Karnataka Assembly.

The decision was taken after the apex court heard the arguments for and against the petition filed by the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) following Governor Vajubhai R. Vala’s invitation to the BJP to form the government in the state, despite BJP had less number of MLAs than the number of MLAs in poll-post alliance by Congress and JD(S)

The BJP has 104 MLAs but they are still short of the simple majority mark of 113 by nine MLAs and have been given 24 hours to prove the same in the assembly. Since two Congress MLAs are ‘missing’, the halfway mark will come to 111.

On the other hand, Congress (78 seats) and JD-S (37 seats), along with two independent candidates have a total of 117 MLAs post alliance.

(With ANI inputs)