The Karnataka government has asked Eagleton Golf Resort near Bengaluru, where 42 Congress MLAs from Gujarat have been sequestered to prevent them from joining the BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll next week, to pay Rs 982-crore penalty bill.
According to The Indian Express, state law minister TB Jayachandra said the cabinet has decided to ask the resort to pay Rs 982 crore as penalty to regularise 77 acres of land encroached by it or surrender it to the government.
The resort, tagged as one of the earliest world-class golf resorts in the country, was started by Andhra Pradesh businessmen Meda Ashok Kumar in 2000. After his death in 2013, it is being run by his two sons Meda Kiran Kumar and Meda Chethan, according the report.
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According to the resort's website, charges for executive suites are as high as Rs 8,500 per day that includes meals, and deluxe rooms were for Rs 7,500 a day. Gujarat Congress was driven to panic after losing six MLAs to the BJP ahead of the 8 August Rajya Sabha elections.
An IANS report said the MLAs, who were flown from Ahmedabad on Saturday, were "restive", complaining they were cut off from their people.
"We have been brought and kept here against our will. We want to go back to our constituencies as they are flood-hit and our people are affected," one of the legislators was heard telling their manager Naresh Rawal in Gujarati," a party spokesperson told IANS.
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The decision to issue the penalty taken by the Congress government on the basis of a apex court order is a change of stance, since the previous BJP government had decided in 2012 to hand over the 77 acres to the resort for a regularisation fee of Rs 82.69 crore, adds The Indian Express report.
Meanwhile on Sunday, the Congress paraded its 44 MLAs lodged in the resort before media to scotch reports of disunity in their ranks, and accused the BJP of trying to poach them by offering a bribe of Rs 15 crore each to cross-vote in the Rajya Sabha polls.
The resignation by the six MLAs, including Balwantsinh Rajput, Congress chief whip in the Assembly, followed the exit of party stalwart and former chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela. The resignations brought down the Congress's strength in the Assembly from 57 to 51. Three of the six later joined the BJP.
Rajput, a relative of Vaghela, has now been fielded by BJP to take on Patel, who is seeking a fifth Rajya Sabha term.
