HYDERABAD: Ahead of a floor test in the Bihar Assembly for the JD(U)-BJP coalition government on February 12, the Congress shifted 19 MLAs to Hyderabad on Sunday by a special flight in a bid to ward off poaching attempts by the Nitish Kumar government.
The legislators arrived in the city hours after 39 Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLAs, who had been staying at a Shamirpet resort for the past two days, left for Ranchi on Sunday. The Congress-JMM government is facing a floor test in Jharkhand on Monday.
Sources said the Congress’ national leadership considered Hyderabad a safe haven for its MLAs to prevent poaching attempts in other states.
Party sources said that Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Singh and former state president Madan Mohan Jha were leading the delegation of Bihar MLAs, who arrived in the city from Delhi. They are camping at a resort in Ibrahimpatnam.
Sources said that AICC secretary Sampath Kumar, protocol chairman Harkara Venugopal and senior Congress leader Malreddy Ramreddy were coordinating the affairs of Bihar MLAs. They are likely to stay in Hyderabad till February 10.
Congress leader Pranav Jha said that the alliance has “sufficient numbers”.
“We have sufficient numbers, which is more than the majority. We came to Hyderabad because the BJP was still trying to break us. The threat of ED, CBI, IT was also there in Bihar. They are trying to break every opposition-ruled state,” he said.
