After going incommunicado ahead of the trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly on Thursday, it was found that Congress MLA Shrimant Balasaheb Patil had travelled to Mumbai. He had slipped out of the Prakriti Resort in Bengaluru on Wednesday night.
This development was confirmed by a Congress functionary to TNM.
The MLA of Kagwad constituency left the Prakriti Resort before a meeting was set to be held with Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara.
Shrimant cited chest pain as his reason for leaving the resort on Wednesday night. Photos of him receiving treatment in a hospital were released on Thursday morning. Sources in the Congress told TNM that he is receiving treatment at a hospital in Mumbai.
Speaking on this, a Congress source said, “He left Bengaluru last night by HAL airport and reached Mumbai. He could have taken treatment at a hospital here. Why did he have to go to Mumbai?”
BJP sources claimed that he has not joined the rebel MLAs staying in a hotel there and is in a hospital in Mumbai.
Shrimant is not the only MLA to skip Thursday’s proceedings, aside from the 15 rebel MLAs who have been given liberty by the Supreme Court to skip the Assembly session.
Independent MLA R Shankar, known in political circles as 'Pendulum Shankar' for constantly swinging between BJP and Congress, also did not turn up at the Assembly. The other independent MLA H Nagesh also abstained from the Assembly session. The duo had withdrawn their support from the coalition government and indicated that they will support the BJP.
The lone BSP MLA in the Karnataka Assembly N Mahesh also abstained from the Assembly on Thursday. He was elected from Kollegal constituency and was also made the Primary and Secondary Education Minister in the Karnataka cabinet until he resigned from his ministerial position in December 2018.
This takes the number of absentees for the 224-seat Assembly on Thursday to 20. Seven-time Congress MLA Ramalinga Reddy, who had also submitted his resignation papers, attended the Assembly session and confirmed that he will vote in favour of the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government.
Here is the full list of Karnataka MLAs who skipped Thursday's Assembly session:
Cong MLAs in Mumbai
Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak)
Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram)
ST Somashekhar (Yeshwanthpura)
BC Patil (Hirekerur)
Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur)
Prathapgouda Patil (Maski)
Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani)
MTB Nagaraj (Hoskote)
JD(S) MLAs in Mumbai
K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout)
AH Vishwanath (Hunasuru)
Narayana Gowda (Krishanarajapete)
Other Congress MLAs
Munirathna Naidu (RR Nagar)
Roshan Baig (Shivajinagar)
K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura)
Anand Singh (Vijayanagara)
B Nagendra (Ballari Rural)
Shrimant Patil (Kagwad)
BSP
N Mahesh (Kollegal)
Independent MLAs
R Shankar (Ranebennur)
H Nagesh (Mulbagal)