Confident of forming government in Karnataka: Congress MLA

Karnataka`s Humnabad Congress MLA Rajshekhar Patil on Thursday said the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance was confident of forming the government in Karnataka.

"All the MLAs are here in Hyderabad. We will be leaving for Bengaluru. We don`t have any meeting here. Siddaramaiah has come here and we will be leaving soon. Total we have 78 MLAs, but right now we have 77 MLAs here. There is no pressure on us. We are confident that we will form the government along with JD(S)," Patil told.

Asked about Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being the single largest party, Patil quipped, "They don`t have the numbers.

"Meanwhile, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah arrived at the Hotel Taj Krishna here on Thursday and met with the Congress MLAs.

Fearing defection to BJP or being "poached", the Congress and JD(S) has shifted their MLAs to numerous hotels in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ruled that a floor test should be conducted on Saturday at 4 pm for BJP to prove their majority in the Karnataka assembly.

The decision was taken after the top court heard the arguments for and against the petition filed by the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) following Governor Vajubhai R. Vala`s invitation to the BJP to form the government in the state.

The BJP has 104 MLAs but they are still short of the simple majority mark of 113 by nine MLAs and have been given 24 hours to prove the same in the assembly by the apex court.

However, if two `missing` Congress MLAs do not get to vote tomorrow, the halfway mark will fall to 111.

On the other hand, Congress (78 seats) and JD-S (37 seats), along with two independent candidates have formed a post-poll alliance and are staking claim to form the government in Karnataka, with a total of 115 MLAs.