Congress, JD-S shift MLAs to Hyderabad to prevent 'poaching'
Bengaluru, May 18: An embattled Congress and JD-S have shifted their newly-elected MLAs to Hyderabad from here to prevent the BJP from poaching them ahead of the crucial floor test in the new Assembly, officials said on Friday.
"We have shifted 36 of our legislators in a bus to Hyderabad to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from poaching them to defect," Janata Dal-Secular spokesman Ramesh Babu told here.
JD-S state President H.D. Kumaraswamy, however, returned to Bengaluru, clarified Babu.
The Congress also shifted its MLAs to Hyderabad in a separate luxury bus to prevent the BJP from approaching them.
Party leader D.K. Shivakumar told reporters here that the priority for the party was to keep its legislators safe.
"Our priority is to keep all our MLAs safe and intact. There is a lot of pressure on their families. So some of the legislators have been shifted to Hyderabad, while some have stayed back in Bengaluru," Shivakumar said.
The Congress leader, however, refused to specify how many legislators were shifted to Hyderabad in neighbouring Telangana.
In the May 12 Assembly election in 222 segments, the BJP won 104, Congress 78 and JD-S 37.
As Kumaraswamy won from both Channapatna and Ramanagara assembly segments, the party effectively has 37 votes, including one vote from its Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ally, as the JD-S state president can vote for one seat.
As the BJP is eight short of the 112-halfway mark for a simple majority to win the trust vote, Congress and JD-S which have formed a post-poll alliance, fear their MLAs would be poached to defect the confidence motion.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
