With its government in alliance with the JD-S facing a potential crisis in Karnataka, the Congress is rushing its two senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and K.C. Venugopal to Bengaluru to handle the situation. Azad and Venugopal will reach Bengaluru on Tues-day evening and are expected to hold discussions with senior state leaders of the alliance. Expansion of the Cabinet is also planned to check the possible desertions.
The move comes amidst reported efforts by the BJP to woo potential unhappy MLAs of Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and the Congress. In the elections held last year to the 224-member Assembly, the BJP had won coming the single largest party. However, it was nine seats short of a majority, because of which it could not form the government.
On the other hand, the JDS and the Congress forged an alliance and formed the government with 116 seats. Alarm bells started ringing in the ruling camp after two ‘rebel’ Karnataka Congress MLAs met BJP’s senior leader S.M. Krishna, who was earlier with the Congress, on Sunday.
