I-T dept raids K'taka minister, resort where Gujarat Cong MLAs are staying

Bengaluru: The Income Tax department on Wednesday morning conducted raids at Karnataka's Minister for Energy DK Shivakumar's houses and at Eagleton Golf resort where 44 Congress Gujarat MLAs are staying.

The raids took place at minister's homes in Kanakapura and Sadashivanagar, and at rooms of Congress Party MLAs in the resort.

The raids started at 7 am this morning and are still underway.

Shivkumar was in-charge of hospitality for all Congress Gujarat MLAs staying in Bengaluru.

In the backdrop of Gujarat Congress MLAs quitting and joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as many as 44 of the grand old party MLAs left for Bengaluru recently to ensure they don't succumb to police and political pressure to join the saffron party.

Speaking to the reporters, Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar earlier said, "To ensure that BJP is not successful in its mission, 44 of us Congress MLAs are leaving from Gujarat for Bengaluru. To hide their failure, the saffron party is trying to make sure our MLAs resign by offering money and through police pressure."

Earlier, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi had accused the BJP in the state of horse-trading ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for August 8.

Gujarat Congress leader and AICC spokesperson Shakti Sinh Gohil had also accused the BJP of trying to purchase 22 MLAs by offering Rs 15 crore for cross-voting during the Upper House polls.

Defending the move to fly down its MLAs to Bengaluru from Gujarat, the Congress has also alleged that the BJP government in Gujarat was threatening its lawmakers and their families.

The developments come after at least six Congress MLAs in Gujarat resigned from the party to join the BJP.