Bengaluru: On Wednesday, as the first day of the budget session of the Karnataka Assembly, seven Congress MLAs have gone ‘missing’. The development comes just a day after Siddaramaiah issued a whip for all Congress' 80 MLAs to be compulsorily present during the Karnataka Assembly Budget Session which began Wednesday. Among those reportedly missing include four rebels Umesh Jadhav, Mahesh Kumathalli, Ramesh Jarkiholi and B Nagendra who earlier gave a miss to Congress' Legislature Party meeting last month. 

While the development comes weeks after Karnataka Congress shifted it lawmakers to a resort fearing they will be poached by the BJP. The JD(S)-Congress alliance government in Karnataka alleged that the saffron party is trying to topple the government by luring its legislators as part of the latter’s ‘Operation Kamala’.

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Before with reports of "missing" legislators, the Congress herded all the legislators and had them stay at a resort in Bengaluru in order to frustrate the alleged poaching attempts of the BJP. As two parties accused each other, the BJP also shifted its MLAs to a resort in Gurugram in order to thwart any possible attempt by the Congress to break ranks with the BJP.

Earlier spotted that  as many as 11 Congress MLAs going missing. However, all of which returned to Bengaluru after Congress reportedly agreed to a list of demands by them which included luxury cars etc. After returning, two MLAs withdrew support from the Kumaraswamy government alleging his regime is “unstable”. The budget session of Karnataka Assembly commenced on February 6 and will conclude on February 15.

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