INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Hours before BS Yeddyurappa resigned as chief minister in the Karnataka assembly, two Congress lawmakers had gone MIA this morning
But they were both back with the Congress just in time for the floor test that never happened
The Congress alleged that they had been held captive inside a hotel in Bengaluru by the BJP
Anand Singh and Pratap Gowda Patil reached the assembly, the Vidhana Soudha, about an hour before the trust vote was scheduled
Pratap Gowda Patil was seen pushing away BJP lawmakers and rushing to join his Congress colleagues
He was also seen tucking into lunch, surrounded by his Congress colleagues."Pratap Gowda won't betray us," Congress leader DK Shivkumar
said, who has been in charge of guarding his party's lawmakers and organizing their "protection".Anand Singh, seen for the first time in
four days, sat with Mr Shivkumar in the house.When their names were called out in the assembly for their oath in the morning, Mr Singh and
hotelBefore they surfaced, the two became the focal point of the Karnataka thriller, desperately sought by the Congress
Senior police officers including commissioner T Suneel Kumar visited the hotel to check whether Anand Singh and Mr Patil had been held
captive or were there of their own free will.The lawmakers, the Congress alleged, had been flown into Bengaluru on a chartered flight by BJP
legislator Somasekhara Reddy, who was also missing from the assembly in the morning.Somasekhara Reddy is the brother of Janardhana Reddy,
the mining kingpin closely associated with the BJP though the party has officially disowned him."We have issued a whip to the two MLAs that
they should be present in the house," said Congress MP DK Suresh, who tried to meet the legislators but was not allowed to enter beyond the
reception by the police.The BJP has 103 lawmakers, eight short of the 111-majority mark
The Congress says it has "all 78 lawmakers" and the Janata Dal Secular has 37.Asked about the missing legislators in the morning, Mr
Shivakumar had said: "Their seats are vacant
Their seats are allotted along with us
They will be with us."Anand Singh had earlier been quoted by the Congress as well as Janata Dal Secular that he had been "kidnapped" by the
BJP and threatened with criminal action by the Enforcement Directorate in an illegal mining case against him.For the brief time they spent
at the Gold Finch, the road to the hotel was blocked by policemen and the media.
