Mumbai: After Mumbai, Goa will be the second halt of the 14 dissident MLAs of the ruling JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka. After staying put in Mumbai for a couple of days, they left for the coastal state on Monday evening.
According to sources, the including 10 Congress, 2 JD(S) and 2 Independent MLAs, left for Goa by road and are being accompanied by Mohit Bhartiya, president of the Mumbai BJP Yuva Morcha. They are expected to stay at a resort in Goa.
The MLAs had arrived in Mumbai on Saturday evening. Minister and Independent MLA H. Nagesh joined them on Monday, who had resigned and withdrawn support to the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led government in Karnataka. Nagesh was recently inducted into the ministry as small-scale industries minister.
The Sofitel Hotel, where the rebel MLAs were put up, in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, had become a hotbed of political activities for the last couple of days. The police had kept a tight bandobust outside the hotel. They had put barricades on the road outside the hotel and did not allow Congress workers or leaders to enter its premises Monday.
Youth Congress workers continued their protests for the second consecutive day on Monday as they brought two horse-drawn carriages outside the hotel to protest the BJP’s ‘horse trading,’ which they said, had led to the crisis in the JD(S)-Congress alliance government in Karnataka.
A large contingent of media personnel from Karnataka, including those from news channels, has also landed in Mumbai to cover political developments in the city related to the state.
Karnataka’s year-old government is on the brink of collapse after the spate of resignations by the MLAs.
The Karnataka Assembly has 225 members, including one nominated MLA. While the Congress and JD(S) have 78 and 37 MLAs respectively, the BJP has 105.
