Rebel Karnataka MLAs seek Sai Baba’s blessings

Mumbai: The dissident Karnataka MLAs, presently staying in Mumbai, are on a temple spree as they boarded a charter flight to Shirdi to seek Sai Baba’s blessings. On Friday, they visited the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai. Meanwhile, the Shirdi youth Congress unit has protested the presence of the rebel MLAs in Shirdi.

In a tweet, Satyajeet Tambe, president, Maharashtra Youth Congress, said, “The Shirdi Youth Congress is at Shirdi airport where the Cong-JD(S) MLAs have come for Baba's Darshan. We hope that Sai Baba will give them insight to follow his teachings of shraddha (faith) and saburi (patience). Politics should be for public service and with ethics and not merely to enjoy power.”

Sources said that the rebel legislators reached Shirdi around 1pm by the charter flight and were welcomed by the district president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Sachin Tambe. They travelled by a private bus from the airport to the Shirdi temple.

Meanwhile, efforts have been intensified by the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition to reach out to the dissenting legislators, who have decided to abstain from the Assembly when the Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy calls for a trust vote, the sources said.

These legislators have already submitted their resignations to speaker Ramesh Kumar and have already conveyed their stand to him. The 12 rebel legislators who have been staying in Mumbai since last Saturday, earlier stayed at the Sofitel Hotel in BKC and later shifted to the Renaissance Hotel in Powai late Monday evening. The Congress-JD(S) legislators flew to Bangalore to meet the speaker and returned to Mumbai Thursday night.

Mr Kumaraswamy had announced about seeking a trust vote on the floor of the Assembly after the Supreme Court ordered the speaker to maintain status quo on the resignations of the 10 rebel MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) till July 16.