JOIN USDKS detained, sent back from Mumbai
The high-voltage drama of Karnataka politics unfolded in Mumbai on Wednesday with police preventing Congress’ troubleshooter D K Shivakumar from meeting the rebel MLAs camping in a five-star hotel here.
Water Resources Minister Shivakumar was also detained by the Mumbai police and later “deported” from Mumbai back to Bengalaru.
“What the BJP has done is completely undemocratic,” he said after his release from the guest house of the University of Mumbai’s Kalina campus where he was lodged for a few hours.
Shivakumar landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport around 8 am.
He headed straight to the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel at Powai around 9 am — in a departure from his earlier announced schedule.
Tight security was already in place at the hotel as the 10 MLAs who were lodged there had complained to the police of “threats” from Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar.
The posse of policemen led by deputy commissioner of police Sangramsinh Niishandar told him that he could not be allowed as the hotel feared security threats.
The hotel administration also cancelled Shivakumar’s hotel reservation. “I have a car, I have a reservation but I was not allowed in,” he said, adding that he was not a “terrorist” and “have come to meet the MLAs”.
“They are my friends, we have worked together....I want to meet my brothers....there were some issues, some misunderstanding, we are part of the same family...we want to clear it out,” Shivakumar said.
He said he loves Mumbai and that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was a “personal friend”.
Shivakumar, who was accompanied by Higher Education Minister G T Devegowda and two JD(S) MLAs K M Shivalinge Gowda and C N Balakrishna, said the rebel MLAs called him and wanted to meet him but they are being prevented.
“In have a heart, I want to exchange hearts...I have no weapons...I am an elected MLA...I have been in public life for several years,” he said.
He also said an IPS officer can accompany him when he goes in. All his pleas were in vain and the gates were closed.
However, a patient but defiant Shivakumar staged a sort of a sit-in outside the hotel and preferred to wait and watch — forcing the Mumbai police to clamp prohibitory orders.
Senior Congress leaders including Naseem Khan, Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam rushed by his side.
He was then joined by Mumbai Congress leaders and there was sloganeering and counter-sloganeering among Congress and BJP workers.
Around 2.30 pm, Shivakumar was detained and driven in a police van to the University of Mumbai’s Kalina campus and lodged him in its guesthouse instead of the Powai police station.
Around 5.30 pm, he was released. “The Mumbai police is deporting me back...I don’t want to create a law and order situation,” he said.