Bengaluru: Suspended JD(S) MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan said on Sunday that AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had invited the seven suspended JD(S) legislators to join the Congress and they all would meet him in New Delhi on August 17.
Mr Khan told reporters in Tumakuru that the seven legislators would go to Delhi with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar and KPCC President Dr G. Parameshwar. They would formally join the Congress in December. “Another six disgruntled JD(S) leaders would join the Congress in February next, he said.
Claiming that the Congress would win 160 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections, Mr Khan said the BJP would not cross the 60- mark even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah camped in Karnataka before elections. Mr Shah’s magic might have worked in Bihar and Gujarat. It would not work in Karnataka. Mr Siddaramaiah would become CM again, he added.
On JD(S) President H.D. Deve Gowda asking him to quit as party MLA, Mr Khan said: “Mr Gowda has no moral right to ask me to resign. I have been elected by the people and not by Mr Gowda. He even called me Mir Sadiq. I have not cheated anyone in my life.”
