Stopped at the gate, Shivakumar retreats from hotel without meeting rebel MLAs

Mumbai, July 10: Congress leader, D K Shivakumar, who arrived here to pacify the rebel MLAs had retreat after the police blocked him and supporters of a JD(S) leader protested against his presence.

Shivakumar who arrived along with Shivalinge Gowda of the JD(S) to pacify the rebel MLAs were not allowed into the Renaissance hotel at Powai. The police while blocking the leaders said that they were acting on a complaint given by the MLAs, who said that they felt threatened by the presence of the leaders from Karnataka.

In the letter to the Commissioner of Police, ten MLAs said that they felt threatened as Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar may storm the hotel.

Shivakumar on the other hand said that he had booked a room and his friends were staying there. There has been a small problem, we have to hold negotiations. We cannot go for a divorce immediately. There is no question of me threatening anyone as we love and respect each other.

He was later escorted away by the police.

The MLAs who sought security were Shivram Hebbar, Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, Byrati Basavraj, ST Somshekar, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Gopalaiyya, H Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda and Mahesh Kumutali.

We have heard that Shri Kumaraswamy and Shri Shivakumar are going to storm the hotel premises and we feel threatened because of the same, they wrote in the letter. They also said that they do not want to meet the two leaders and asked the police not to allow them inside the hotel.

Mumbai Police Spokesperson, Manjunath Singe said that the MLAs are in the hotel and we have deployed adequate police personnel outside the hotel in the morning to look into any kind of law and order situation.

On reaching the city, Shivakumar said, let the police be deployed. Let them do their duty. We have come to meet our friends. We were born together in politics and will die together in politics.

They are our party men and we have come to meet them.

On the other hand as the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka plunged into more trouble, the Congress rushed senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal to Bengaluru to sort out the differences.

Sources said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi asked the leaders to mitigate the crisis in the southern state and save the government.

Azad, one of the architects of the coalition arrangement following a fractured mandate in May 2018, is scheduled to meet JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda to end the four-day-long impasse on the eve of the legislature session that commences on July 12.

Sibal is expected to use his expertise on Constitutional matters to deal with issues of disqualification of the rebels.

The crisis in Karnataka deepened Tuesday as another Congress MLA quit and the party sought the Assembly Speaker's intervention in disqualifying its rebel legislators.