Council polls: BJP moves its legislators to resort

Bangalore, May 31 (UNI) Willing to take no chance in tomorrow's biennial elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council, the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today convened a meeting of its legislators at a resort near Hosur on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border to ensure the victory of its candidates.

BJP sources said Party Senior Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu would attend the meeting and guide the legislators to ensure the victory of the party candidates--Vimala Gowda, D S Veeraiah, Janardhan Reddy and Thontadarya--in the elections.

The decision to move the legislators to a resort was reportedly to avoid cross voting following party MP Basavaraj Yatnal's outbursts against senior party leader and Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.

When contacted by the UNI, the BJP ministers and legislators refused to divulge details about their trip to the resort and also pleaded ignorance about the agenda of the meeting.

Water Resources Minister K S Eshwarappa, Civil Supplies Minister Govind Karjol and Horticulture and Endowments Minister Nagaraj Shetty were among the BJP leaders in the bus heading to Hosur.

This was the second time the BJP leaders were visiting the same resort within a short span of time. Four months ago, fearing poaching by other political parties, the BJP had moved its legislators to the resort just a few days before the previous Congress-JD(S) government to seek a confidence vote on the floor of the State Assembly as directed by the Governor. Subsequently, the Dharam Singh government fell, paving the way for the present JD (S) and BJP coalition government to assume office.

The BJP, which emerged the single largest party in the 2004 assembly elections, had 79 members in the 224-member House.

UNI MV/SR RG SB1517