New Delhi: As the Congress rejoices in the Supreme Court order for floor test on Saturday, the party has another issue to fend.
Congress MLA BS Anand Singh is now missing. Singh, who had joined the Congress in January earlier this year, was with the BJP before this. Now that he has gone incommunicado, speculations are rife that Singh has gone back to the BJP, which is trying to shore up its numbers ahead of the confidence motion.
He was also supposedly missing from the legislative party meeting on Thursday. Congress MP DK Suresh has categorically stated that Singh, who was the state tourism minister in the BJP government when they ruled during 2008-13, is in the clutches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His statement was backed by JD(S) chief HD Kumaraswamy who said that BJP was threatening MLAs. Singh is a former Karnataka minister and a two-time MLA from Vijayanagar in Ballari.
Singh left BJP, barely months before the election, saying that the BJP was one unit that constantly squabbled. The Congress backed him up saying that the BJP had no place for secular values.
Anand is one of the richest politicians in Karnataka, with his business interests spanning from mining to trade to hospitality. His ambit is further extended to the media as editor of Ananda Karnataka Daily.
The former minister was arrested in 2013 for the illegal mining scam that tainted the then BJP government. He was granted conditional bail in early 2015, but was arrested again the same year for illegally transporting iron ore. Other cases against him include rioting, murder, and criminal intimidation.
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