At least 80 Congress lawmakers from Madhya Pradesh have been lodged at the same resort on the Delhi-Jaipur highway where, in November 2019, party MLAs from Maharashtra were also kept during the process of government formation.
The MP MLAs were brought to Jaipur from Bhopal on Wednesday to prevent them from switching to the rival BJP or resigning like the 22 Congress legislators.
Nineteen of these 22 legislators are lodged in Prestige Golfshire resort at Devanhalli on the outskirts of Bengaluru, where they are being watched by local BJP leaders. On Wednesday, some Congress workers protested outside the resort, seeking an opportunity to meet them.
The Karnataka police have provided security cover around the resort following a request by an MLA to the state director general of police. The MLAs have also asked police not to allow any Congress leader to meet them. Newly appointed Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar has been asked to approach these MLAs, Congress leaders in Bhopal said.
Hundreds of kilometers away, the other Congress legislators are in the Buena Vista Resort on the outskirts of Jaipur with a tight police security cover. The entire resort has been booked for the MLAs and no outsiders were being allowed inside, said a senior Congress leader familiar with the development.
He also said another luxury resort, Tree House, has been booked to accommodate more MLAs, if they come from Bhopal or Bangaluru.
The Congress MLAs were received by Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and other senior leaders such as Mukul Wasnik and former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat at the Jaipur airport.
Meanwhile, the BJP also moved about 100 party MLAs from MP to ITC Grand Bharat on the outskirts of Gurugram. Party insiders said Dr Anil Jain, BJP national general secretary and senior BJP leader from MP Kailash Vijayvargiya accompanied these MLAs during the night.
“Increasingly, as ideological lines blur, only power seems to be the glue which can hold parties together…,” said Prof Harish Ramaswamy, who teaches political science at Karnataka University.
