Cong flies 44 Gujarat MLAs to Bengaluru

In a fresh twist to political saga in Gujarat, Congress decided to fly off 44 of its 51 remaining legislators to Congress-ruled safe haven Bengaluru on Friday night itself.

“About 44 of us are flying to Bengaluru,” Sailesh Parmar, legislator, Dani Limda, Ahmedabad, told mediapersons at Ahmedabad airport. While 14 legislators are slated to fly directly to Bengaluru via an Indigo flight at 11.45 pm, those from Saurashtra and South Gujarat have flown to Mumbai en route to Bengaluru. “We are going to Bengaluru to save democracy,” Parmar added. The group of legislators boarding flight from Ahmedabad were seen reach the airport in a bus at 10.30 pm.

The move by Congress comes in wake of six of its 57 legislators quitting party in last two days. Their move comes days before crucial Rajya Sabha polls of August 8 being fought by Ahmed Patel, senior Congress leader and political secretary to Sonia Gandhi. The Congress had during the day accused BJP President Amit Shah of engineering defections in Gujarat by "money and muscle power". They paraded four legislators from tribal belt before media in the evening to substantiate their claims. Allegations were also made against Shankarsinh Vaghela, the man who started the entire split after quitting Congress on July 21.

“What they did in Goa, Manipur and in Bihar. They are trying to do the same in Gujarat. Our legislators are being threatened or offered money. People like an IPS officer who was behind bars for 8-9 years in fake encounter case are being used to kidnap legislator, offer money or threaten our legislators. There is insecurity and environment of terror. So our legislators are being moved to safety,” Arjun Modhvadia, senior Congress leader, told mediapersons at Ahmedabad airport on Friday night.

This could be a last ditch attempt by the party to prevent more legislators from resigning or defecting to the BJP and keep the rest of the flock aloof from allurements.