Shivakumar not allowed to enter as Cong MLAs alleged threat to

Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar was not allowed to enter a Mumbai hotel where Congress MLAs are lodged as they alleged a threat to their life from him and sought police protection, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday told Lok Sabha, as Congress staged a walkout over the issue.

For the third consecutive day, the Congress raised the issue of political crisis in Karnataka in the House.

Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said in Karnataka democracy is being betrayed and a conspiracy is being hatched to overthrow the government.

When Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla did not allow Chowdhury to further speak on the issue during the Zero Hour, Congress members came to well of the House and started shouting slogans that democracy was being crushed in the state.

They later staged a walkout while accusing the BJP of seeking to dethrone the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state.

Many other opposition parties such as TMC, DMK and NCP also walked out in solidarity with the Congress.

Responding to charges levelled by Chowdhury, Joshi displayed the letter written by the MLAs lodged in a hotel in Mumbai and said it is on their request that the police is guarding the premises.

Joshi said he would like to put this on record that MLAs staying in a Hotel in Mumbai have written to the city police commissioner that there is a threat to their life from Shivakumar.

Shivakumar was prevented from entering the Mumbai hotel where rebel MLAs from Karnataka were staying, but insisted on meeting them in a desperate bid to pull the Congress-JD(S) government from the brink of collapse.

Politics is an art of the possibility and he should be allowed to go into the room he had booked earlier, the senior Congress leader said as he stood on vigil outside the Renaissance Hotel in Powai that has become the centrepiece of the deepening political crisis in Karnataka.