Decoy buses used to mislead ‘MLA poachers’

Congress leaders in Telangana used three ‘decoy’ buses to mislead rivals from poaching Congress and JD(S) MLAs from Karnataka who arrived here in three buses on Friday morning.

As the legislators reached Hyderabad, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy saw to it that the Congress MLAs were accommodated in Taj Krishna hotel and the JD(S) MLAs in Novotel hotel. A few stayed in Pragathi resorts.

A senior Telangana Congress leader, the acting host, here said six buses were used to mislead the poachers. “We have used six buses while MLAs were occupying only three, remaining three buses were decoys,” he stated.

Karnataka legislators will be returning to Bengaluru either by Friday night or Saturday morning in a flight to attend the floor test in Karnataka Assembly, sources said.

Refuting reports that few a Congress MLAs were missing during transit, former Karnataka Energy Minister D K Shivakumar told reporters here that even though the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) did not allow them to take chartered flight to move the party MLAs to a safer place from Bengaluru on Thursday, the party has succeeded in keeping the flock
together.

“We are all united. The two MLAs you are talking about are in touch with us. One is sick and he couldn’t travel,” Shivakumar said when asked about the number of party MLAs staying at Taj Krishna.

Senior JD(S) legislator G T Deve Gowda told news agencies in Hyderabad: “Rs 100 crore or Rs 200 crore, our MLAs are with us. None of our members are going away. Today, evening or tomorrow early morning, we all are leaving for Bengaluru.”