Amid the political crisis in Madhya Pradesh, senior Congress leader from Karnataka D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday claimed that he was in touch with the rebel MLAs who are allegedly cooped up in Bengaluru. Shiakumar said 19 MLAs are under 'police custody' in Karnataka and most of them would return to the Congress soon, reported NDTV.
"I won't reveal our strategy but this isn't over. This may not even be a long drawn affair... they may return soon,” he told the TV channel.
Claiming that there is no danger to the Kamal Nath government, he said the ministers were misled by Jyotiraditya Scindia and that they were angry about going to the BJP.
Scindia, an influential leader of the party in Madhya Pradesh, announced his resignation on Tuesday morning following his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
At least 22 Congress MLAs, many of whom loyal to him, have also resigned, reducing the ruling Congress in Madhya Pradesh to a minority and leaving the Kamal Nath government on the verge of collapse.
Scindia is likely to join the BJP in Bhopal on March 12, along with his supporters and several Congress MLAs.
The 49-year-old leader was long upset with the Congress as he believes that Nath and Digvijaya Singh, another party satrap in the state, were working in tandem to marginalise him.
While the Congress, which was voted to power in the state after 15 years in 2018, has 114 MLAs, the BJP has 107 legislators in the 230-member assembly.
