From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Aug 6: After their eventful week-long stay in the Eagleton Resort in the Ramanagara-Bidadi area in the outskirts of Bengaluru from July 30 onwards, the 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat will be leaving for home in Gujarat by Indigo flights on Monday August7 morning.
However, the MLAs are likely to stay in a resort near Ahmedabad till the crucial Rajya Sabha polling day on Tuesday, August 8.
All legislators would stay in a resort near Ahemdabad till the commencement of the voting for Rajya Sabha elections on August 8 to prevent attempts force them to defect to BJP through horse-trading.
AICC President Sonia Gandhi’s Political Secretary Ahmed Patel is the Congress nominee.
File Photo
BJP National President Amit Shah and the Union Information Minister Smriti Irani are the two main candidates with Balvantsinh Rajput, who was Congress MLA and had resigned from the party before the Rajya Sabha polls and defected to the BJP, is the third candidate.
The Gujarat MLAs, whose stay in Eagleton Resort was taken care of by Karnataka’s Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh, who is Congress MP from Kanakapura, called on State Vajubhai Vala and visited the State secretariat on Saturday.
During their stay in the City, the Income Tax department officials raided the residence and offices of Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and the Gujarat legislators condemned the timing of the raids.
Denying the reports that the MLAs would first be flown to Delhi to meet Sonia, Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil told reporters here that they would be returning to Gujarat "directly".
"One thing that has been decided is that all of us (the 44 MLAs) will fly to Gujarat, not Delhi," he said.
Gohil alleged that it was the BJP, which was spreading "canards" that the Congress MLAs would first be flown to the national capital to meet Sonia.
He also charged that the saffron party was spreading "false reports" that the MLAs would use the 'NOTA' option in the upcoming Rajya Sabha poll to defeat Patel.
The Congress has objected to the 'NOTA' option in the Rajya Sabha poll, which is being seen as a prestige battle for the party in Gujarat.
Gohil asserted that all the Congress MLAs were "united" and that they would vote for Patel in the August 8 election.
Six of the 57 Congress MLAs in Gujarat have quit the party recently with three of them joining the BJP on July 28.
On Saturday, Shaktisinh Gohil alleged that the BJP was spreading lies about party legislators being held captive by the Congress central leadership.
"We neither accept bribes nor give it. Any attempt of the BJP to buy our MLAs will be foiled," he said, dismissing reports in a section of the media and BJP accusations that the Congress legislators were having fun at the resort while people in their constituencies in Gujarat were affected by floods, Gohil said.
"If we were here to enjoy, we would have accepted the Rs15 crore offer from the BJP," he added.
The MLAs were flown to Bengaluru as ruling BJP in Gujarat had already ensured the defection of six Congress MLAs after prominent Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela, who had left BJP to join Congress, had resigned from the party. But he, however, had declared that he would not join BJP.
With PTI Inputs