EXCLUSIVE: Congress in contact with 10 BJP MLAs, claim party sources ahead of crucial Karnataka assembly floor test

Hours after sources said to Republic TV that five Congress MLAs and three JD(S) MLAs, along with one more 'abducted' Congress MLA, are in Delhi and in contact with the BJP, Congress sources has made a sensational counter-claim.

The Rahul Gandhi-led party's counter-claim is that 10 MLAs belonging to the BJP are in touch with Karnataka Congress MLA and former minister in the erstwhile Siddaramaiah-led government DK Shivakumar.

SENSATIONAL: A Day Before Karnataka Floor Test, 8 Congress-JD(S) MLAs Are In New Delhi And In Touch With BJP, Claim Sources

As per sources, four of the ten BJP MLAs who are in touch with the Congress are close to a former BJP chief minister of the state.

'If we don't speak, it doesn't mean we don't know what's going on', the Congress sources said, challenging the BJP over what it would do if they abstain from voting in the floor test or vote in favour of the Congress.

The Congress' and JD(S)' MLAs are in Hyderabad at the time of publishing, having reached there on Friday morning at about the same time that the Supreme Court began hearing the two parties' petition against the Karnataka Governor's invitation to BS Yeddyurappa to take oath as the state's chief minister.

In its order, the Supreme Court said that Yeddyurappa must prove his majority at a floor test at 4 pm on Saturday. It dismissed the BJP's request for a secret ballot and ordered that the confidence vote be conducted by a show of hands.

DK Shivakumar is one of the leaders who has been charged with ensuring that the Congress' MLAs remain with the party. On the day of the Karnataka election results, he had turned up at Raj Bhavan touting two Independent MLAs whom he claimed to have brought into the Congress-JD(S)' fold.