Dissident Karnataka BJP MLAs holed up at Mumbai airport

Mumbai: A big drama unfolded at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai on early Wednesday morning after 12 dissident Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs from Karnataka reached the city for an alleged political deal with the Janata Dal Secular (JDS).
Around 150 Mumbai BJP workers led by MLC Vinod Tawde forced the MLAs to hole up inside the airport for almost nine hours. Finally, the MLAs flew to Goa after their plan failed.
The 12 MLAs have given a letter to Karnataka governor H.D. Bharadwaj withdrawing support and expressing lack of confidence in chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. The MLAs left Bangalore on Tuesday morning. They first went to Chennai and then Kochi. They took a Sharjah-Kochi-Mumbai flight of Air India from Kochi and reached Mumbai around 2:30 am. They had a plan to stay in Mumbai and had booked rooms in a five star hotel near the airport Hyatt.
As soon as the MLAs came out of the airport Tawde and other BJP workers welcomed them by waiving the BJP's flags. Sensing a trouble for them the MLAs immediately boarded the cars they had booked in advance and went towards Hyatt. After they traveled for 10 minutes the MLAs decided to return to the airport as Tawde and other workers were following them. The MLAs returned to the airport and stayed put in the VIP lounge till 11 in the morning. Finally, they took a Spice Jet flight to Goa at 11:30 am.
07/10/10 Kiran Tare/India Today

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Categories: airports Oct 2010