Bengaluru, 17 June

Taking a dig at the ruling Congress over its legislators camping at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru ahead of the 18 June Legislative Council election, Karnataka BJP President BY Vijayendra on Wednesday said Chief Minister DK Shivakumar seems to have lost confidence in his party MLAs barely 15 days after assuming power.

He expressed confidence that the BJP will comfortably win two of the seven seats going for polls. The Congress hopes to win five of the seats.

“There is no necessity for us to go to any resort," Vijayendra quipped.

The Congress held its legislature party meeting on Tuesday night at a resort in Bidadi, Bengaluru South district. On Wednesday, legislators were familiarised with the voting process using a model ballot paper, and the allocation of preferential votes was discussed at the resort meeting to ensure no vote becomes invalid, and mock voting was held.

Reports suggest that the BLC are lodged in a resort near Wonderla to avoid horse trading. Several Madhya Pradesh Congress legislators were also previously lodged in a resort near the amusement park ahead of the Rajya Sabha bypolls this year.

Vijayendra also targeted the government for asking beneficiaries of two major welfare initiatives -- Gruha Lakshmi and Gruha Jyothi -- to resubmit applications.

Pointing out that the Guarantee Implementation Committee Chairman had raised objections regarding more than 1.60 lakh income tax-paying women receiving the benefits, he said, "They (government) are now giving excuses, but the real fact is that the State government is in a great financial distress because of which they are raising such technical issues."