Hyderabad: The political drama in Jharkhand shifted to Hyderabad on Friday with about 40 MLAs of the ruling JMM-led alliance in the state flying to the Telangana capital amid the coalition’s fears that the BJP may attempt to “poach” them in the run-up to a trust vote to be faced by the newly-formed Champai Soren government.
About 40 legislators arrived at the Begumpet airport here in two flights late in the afternoon, Congress sources said. AICC Telangana in-charge Deepa Das Munshi and state Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar received the MLAs. The Congress, a major constituent of the alliance in Jharkhand, is in power in Telangana.
Soon after their arrival, the MLAs headed to the “Leonia Holistic Destination” at Shamirpet on the city outskirts in luxury buses.
The sprawling facility offers extensive banquet halls, meeting and event facilities.
Barricades have been placed on an approach road leading to the resort by police and entry has been restricted.
As part of routine security arrangements, police personnel have also been deployed there.
A highly-placed Telangana Congress source told PTI that the Jharkhand MLAs would leave on February 5, when the Champai Soren government faces the trust vote.
“They will leave on Monday. The trust vote is on Monday,” the source said.
The JMM-led alliance MLAs sought to reach Hyderabad on Thursday itself from Ranchi. However, their flights could not take off due to poor visibility.
A senior leader of the ruling coalition had said that the decision to shift the legislators to Hyderabad was taken considering that the opposition BJP might make attempts to “poach” them.
“We were given 10 days to prove the government’s majority. We cannot take any chance during the period as the BJP might try to contact our MLAs,” the senior leader said.
A video released by the JMM-led coalition on Thursday showed the support of 43 legislators in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
