Karnataka crisis: Mumbai hotel cancels DK Shivakumar's booking after disgruntled MLAs write to cops seeking protection

Mumbai: The Mumbai hotel where disgruntled Congress-JD(S) legislators are put up, cancelled Karnataka Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar’s reservation on Wednesday citing “some emergency”. “No charges will be applicable,” the Renaissance Hotel in Powai said in an e-mail. The e-mail communication is from the assistant reservation manager to a Ms Hetavi. “As per our conversation we wish to inform you that we have reservation in the name of DK Shivakumar : REZ775665D2. Due to some emergency in the hotel we need to cancel the reservation. No charges will be applicable,” the e-mail reads. In response, the Congressman said that he loved the facility and they should be proud to have a customer like him. [caption id=“attachment_6930891” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Karnataka Minester Congress DK Shivakumar. ANI[/caption] “They should be proud of a customer like me. I love Mumbai. I love this hotel. Let them cancel. I have other rooms also,” said Shivakumar on getting to know about the cancellation. Shivakumar, accompanied by senior JD(S) MLAs, is outside the hotel and prevented from entering the hotel premises. The Congress troubleshooter and JD(S) MLA Shivalinge Gowda arrived in Mumbai Wednesday morning on a special flight from Bengaluru to meet rebel MLAs staying at Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel. The minister said the police told him that no room was booked under his name, but he insisted that the booking was confirmed. On Tuesday midnight, 10 of the 12 MLAs put up in the luxury hotel in Powai wrote to Mumbai Police, saying they feared a threat to their lives, and asked that Shivakumar be prevented from entering the hotel. “We have heard the chief minister (HD Kumaraswamy) and DK Shivakumar are going to storm the hotel, we feel threatened,” the rebel MLAs had written to Mumbai Police. “We do not want to meet him (Shivakumar), kind request to help us in this matter and do not allow them to enter the hotel premises,” the MLAs added in the letter. Among the MLAs who have signed the letter are Shivram Hebbar, Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, ST Somshekar, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Byrati Basavraj, Gopalaiyya, H Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda, and Mahesh Kumutali. The 13-month old Congress-JDS government slumped into crisis following the resignation of 10 MLAs from the membership of the state Assembly last week. Independent MLA H Nagesh also withdrew support from the government on Monday. Latest to join the bandwagon was Congress leader Roshan Baig, who resigned from his membership of state Assembly on Tuesday. With inputs from agencies