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Maharashtra MLAs go sight-seeing in Karnataka

After two days of hectic talks and partying over the weekend, the 100-odd legislators from Maharashtra who are camping at a holiday resort near Bangalore have gone on a sight-seeing tour of Mysore and other places, unmindful of the political crisis in their home state, where the government faces a trust vote on Thursday.

About 30 legislators went to Mysore on Monday morning, while another group took off for the International Technology Park at Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore. A few others headed for the ISKCON temple while the rest went to the Electronics City for a first-hand account of the progress Bangalore had made in information technology.

Though for the record many of them denied that they were on holiday waiting for D-day, some of the MLAs said they were merely making the best use of their time. A few went shopping or visiting old friends.

"We are on a study tour, learning about the great strides Karnataka has made in the IT and biotech sectors," Nagpur MLA Nitin Raut said later. "We have to learn a lot from the impressive progress made by Bangalore."

Asked what made them stay put in Bangalore when their leaders were confident of winning the trust vote on the floor of the state assembly on June 13, the MLAs said they did not want to indulge in street fights and fall prey to the rival Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine, which is out to grab power using money and muscle power.

"In this hour of crisis, the MLAs of the ruling Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party are united and we will not allow the opposition to shift our loyalty or switch sides," one legislator said on condition of anonymity.

Away from the gaze of political poachers, the legislators, including a dozen ministers and some members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council are having a whale of a time in the cooler climes of Golden Palm Spa on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Since their arrival in batches last week, the legislators have been confined to the comforts of the five-star luxury resort, run by the family of movie actor Sanjay Khan.

Over the weekend, many of them were seen whiling away their time in the swimming pool, health club, library, poolside restaurant, or sprawling gardens of the resort, mobile phones in hand.

"We are enjoying our stay here away from the political drama being enacted by our rivals back in Mumbai," Higher Education Minister Anees Ahmed said excitedly. "Bangalore's wholesome weather and the hospitality of the ruling Congress in Karnataka are heart-warming."

On Sunday, the MLAs held closed-door meetings with their leaders, including Chief Minister Vilas Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who were on a day's visit to Bangalore.

Deshmukh, who had flown to Bangalore in the early hours of Sunday, expressed confidence that his beleaguered government would win the trust vote. "We have the 'magic figure' to carry the motion of confidence," he told the media after a two-hour brain-storming session at the spa.

The Maharashtra chief minister scoffed at reports in a section of the press that there would be a change in the leadership of the state government after the trust vote. "My party president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Vayalar Ravi, who is in charge of party affairs in Maharashtra, have already clarified that there will be no change in the leadership," he asserted.

Blaming the Sena-BJP combine for the crisis in the Democratic Front, Deshmukh denied that the ruling front's legislators, including a dozen Cabinet ministers and ministers of state, were shifted out to prevent horse-trading.

"We wanted to avoid any sort of street fights," he said. "Knowing the desperation of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance to grab power using money or muscle power, we decided to ensure the safety and security of our members by moving them to a safer destination like Bangalore."

Looking after the VIP guests are Karnataka Tourism Minister Roshan Baig and Co-operation Minister D Shivkumar, who is also considered the right-hand man of Chief Minister S M Krishna.

"We are only responding to the SOS of the high command," Baig told rediff.com "We have been asked to take care of them in the hour of need. Since there is a Congress government in Karnataka too, the Democratic Front thought Bangalore would be safer place to stay put and keep away the rival poachers who are out to indulge in horse-trading."

This is not the first time besieged MLAs have been flown to Bangalore to keep them away from allurements by rival parties. The salubrious weather and its safe environs have made Bangalore a haven for many ruling parties to seek cover in troubled times.

In the mid-eighties, then Andhra Pradesh chief minister N T Rama Rao had rushed his Telugu Desam Party legislators to Bangalore and Mysore to protect them from the Congress, which was trying to topple his government.

Later, when the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam split after the death of its chief M G Ramachandran, party general secretary J Jayalalithaa rushed a number of legislators to Bangalore for shelter till the political crisis in Tamil Nadu abated.

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