A premature announcement on the return of the disqualified BJP MLAs to the party fold on Wednesday led to high drama outside the BJP state headquarters here, with a section of party workers led by former party MLA M.D. Laxminarayana threatening to consume poison if they were taken back.
It all began at around 4.30 pm after the media coordinator to tourism minister G. Janardhan Reddy tipped off scribes about the development. He claimed the rebels would soon visit the BJP office and make a confession before party state unit president K.S. Eshwarappa.
Reporters rushed to the BJP office eager to see how party leaders would react to the presence of the disqualified MLAs, who had been criticising them for almost a month now. Later, it was learnt, that only three MLAs — Manappa Vajjal, Dr Sarvabhauma Bagali and S.K. Bellubbi — were with Mr Reddy.
Subsequently, Mr Eshwarappa left the office to attend the all party meeting on the Cauvery issue while the RSS representative, Mr Santosh left in a huff. With TV channels flashing news on the dramatic developments, loyal party workers led by Mr Laxminarayana, rushed to the office. Their suicide threat virtually forced the Reddy camp to sent out messages at around 7 pm that the plan to bring the MLAs to the party office had been called off.
“This is not a place where people can arrive and depart as they like. This is our party office and we will not allow these MLAs to return. If they want to do so, let them first go to their constituencies and apologise to the people,” he said.
Later, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy took a few of the disqualified MLAs and the Independents to Raj Bhavan in a bid to demonstrate that he still enjoyed their confidence. He told reporters that all the disqualified MLAs were with him and that none of them had returned to the BJP.