Digvijaya Singh dragged away by police and taken into preventive custody by Bengaluru police

Bengaluru: Dramatic scenes unfolded outside a five-star hotel in Bengaluru on Wednesday morning as senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was lifted and dragged away by the police and taken into preventive custody. Singh sat in protest outside the hotel in Bengaluru hotel where 22 rebel Madhya Pradesh MLAs have been staying for over a week.
He was allegedly stopped by the police from entering the hotel. The resignation of MLAs loyal to former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit last week and joined the BJP, has endangered the Congress government of Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress insists that the MLAs are being held captive in Bengaluru in BJP-ruled Karnataka, even though many of them have been regularly posting videos saying they came of their own volition.
Singh, who landed in Bengaluru early this morning, was received at the airport by newly-appointed Karnataka Congress chief and the party’s main troubleshooter, DK Shivakumar. The Congress leaders headed straight to the Ramada Hotel in north Bengaluru’s Yelahanka where the 22 rebel MLAs are staying.
“We were expecting them to come back, but when we saw they’re being held back, messages came from their families. I personally spoke to five MLAs. They said they’re captive and that their phones have been snatched away. There is Police in front of every room. They’re being followed 24/7,” Singh said.
He claimed that a few of them had told him they were in Bengaluru against their will. “BJP’s model of democracy: MLAs can’t speak to CM, MLAs can’t speak to their family members, MLAs can’t speak to Speaker, MLAs can’t speak to party leaders. MLAs will only speak under controlled circumstances & glare of goons posted by opposition,” he tweeted.
“I demand that we must be allowed to meet our MLAs who are in BJP’s captivity. I announce my hunger strike till we are allowed to meet our MLAs. We live in democracy, not dictatorship,” Digvijaya Singh tweeted.
22 MLAs of Congress resigned earlier this month, pushing the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government to the brink of collapse.