Cong calls legislature party meeting on January 18 amid 'poaching fears'

As the allegations and counter-allegations of poaching have cast their shadow on the state government led by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, the Congress has called a meeting of its legislators here on January 18 to take stock of the prevailing political situation.

The decision to hold the meeting of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) was taken after the party leaders alleged that three of their MLAs were taken to Mumbai by the BJP in an attempt to lure them to their fold.

However, the BJP has dismissed the Congress allegations, claiming that the ruling party was making attempts to poach their MLAs. BJP has parked its 104 party MLAs at a hotel in Gurugram in Haryana.

Talking to media persons here on Wednesday, Congress MP KH Muniyappa has assured the three party MLAs of addressing their grievances. "I urge them to come back. They don't need to worry at all."

"The second generation Congressmen who won election must not feel insecure. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal are aware of your grievances. Your concerns will be given a serious thought in the next Cabinet expansion," added Muniyappa.

Meanwhile, Cabinet minister in Chief Minister Kumaraswamy led Congress-JDS government, Zameer Ahmed Khan said: "Who is scared today? Had we been scared, then we too would've been sitting with our MLAs in a resort."

"It is the BJP which has parked its MLAs in a hotel. Yes, two to three MLAs of the Congress party are in Mumbai. All of them are coming back. They will return by Thursday," said Khan.

On Tuesday, two independent MLAs in Karnataka Assembly-R Shankar and H Nagesh--withdrew their support to the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state.

These two MLAs had gone incommunicado two days ago before announcing their decision at a press conference in Mumbai.

In the 224-member Assembly, JDS has 37 MLAs and the Congress 80. The Congress-JDS alliance has the support of some Independents in the House where the majority figure is 113 stay in power.