Congress MLAs to return to Patna, stay at Tejashwi's residence till trust vote

Patna: With less than 24 hours left for the crucial trust vote in Bihar, legislators of the Congress, who had been made to camp in Telangana for a week, are all set to return by Sunday evening, party sources said.

They said the party legislators' flight is expected to land at the Patna airport by 5 pm and they will drive straight to the residence of former Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

The Congress legislators will be staying, until Monday, with their counterparts from RJD and the Left, at 5, Deshratna Marg, the government bungalow allotted to Yadav when he was the Deputy CM.

The 'Mahagathbandhan', as the Congress, RJD and Left combine is known in local parlance, lost power less than a month ago as a result of JD(U) president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's abrupt return to the BJP-led NDA.

The NDA is comfortably placed, having a combined strength of 128 MLAs in the 243-member state assembly.

Nonetheless, the Congress, which has only 19 MLAs, was plagued by fears of a split ahead of the trust vote, a reason why it may have chosen to transport its legislators to the southern state.

Meanwhile, RJD legislators, who had reached Yadav's home on Saturday for a luncheon, but were asked to stay back till the trust vote, seem to be enjoying a carnival-like atmosphere.

The party has shared a video of them sitting around a bonfire and Yadav, dressed in a tracksuit, applauding a young MLA who crooned a song while playing the guitar.