The Supreme Court’s direction to rebel MLAs to appear before the Assembly Speaker by evening on Thursday set the hopes of coalition troubleshooters soaring. They believed they could finally speak to the MLAs they have had no access to so far.
On Wednesday, Congress strongman D.K. Shivakumar’s attempts to talk to them in Mumbai had gone in vain. But, as it turned out their hopes were belied on Thursday as well.
Nine rebel MLAs timed their arrival in the city in such a way that they only had time to dash to the Vidhana Soudha from HAL Airport in a bus escorted by the city police. In fact, the MLAs had to literally run to the Speaker’s chamber before the Supreme Court’s deadline of 6 p.m.
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Immediately after meeting the Speaker, the MLAs left for HAL airport in the same bus and flew to Mumbai, not making any stops midway. As directed by the Supreme Court, the city police guarded them through out their short trip to the city, leaving no opportunity for the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) leaders to approach them. An hour before the rebel MLAs reached HAL airport, Munirathna, another rebel MLA who had not been to Mumbai, reached Kempegowda International Airport reportedly from Hyderabad. He was also escorted by the police to the Vidhana Soudha.
Another rebel MLA S.T. Somashekhar, who was with other rebels in Mumbai for the last five days, reached the city on Wednesday night to take part in elections to the Karnataka State Cooperative Housing Federation. Sources said that D.K. Shivakumar rushed to Mr. Somashekhar’s house on Wednesday night waiting for him to arrive.
However, Mr. Somashekhar proved elusive.
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