The Congress-Janata Dal Secular government in Karnataka was plunged into crisis with its majority reduced to just one after 11 of its MLAs resigned together on Saturday and apparently flew out of the state.

Shortly after submitting their resignations at the Assembly Speaker’s office, the eight Congress and three JDS lawmakers met governor Vajubhai Vala. A minibus waiting outside Raj Bhavan then ferried them to the old airport where a chartered flight was fuelled and ready.

A nine-seat aircraft registered with a company associated with BJP Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar is believed to have flown some of the MLAs to Mumbai — to take them “out of reach of their parties”, alliance sources said.

The Bombardier Challenger aircraft with the call sign VT-JUI, believed to have flown some of the MLAs to Mumbai, is registered in the name of Jupiter Capital Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, according to aviation regulator DGCA’s list of non-scheduled operators, updated on March 31. Chandrasekhar owns the company.

Calls to Chandrasekhar’s mobile and landline numbers were not answered.

A search on bookmycharters.com for a chartered flight for 9 revealed that a one-way trip to Mumbai would cost between Rs 27 lakh and Rs 32 lakh.

Some sources suggested the remaining MLAs may have caught an airline flight or a second chartered plane.

The BJP denied any role but the concerted resignations had been timed well. Chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy is on a private US trip and will return only on Sunday, while state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao is holidaying in Europe.

None of the resignations can be accepted until Tuesday as Speaker Ramesh Kumar is away in his village in Kolar district and will spend the next two days there.

Those who resigned are former home minister and seven-time MLA Ramalinga Reddy, Mahesh Kumthalli, B.C. Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, Byrathi Basavaraj, S.T. Somashekar, A. Munirathna, Pratapgouda Patil (all Congress), former JDS state president A.H. Vishwanath, Gopaliah and Narayana Gowda (all JDS).

Two Congress lawmakers, Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi, had earlier resigned on Monday.

If all 13 resignations are accepted, the coalition’s strength will fall to 106, one more than the BJP’s 105. In the current Assembly of 224 seats, the Congress has 79 members, the JDS 37, its ally BSP has 1 while the other two members, both Independents, had recently been inducted into the cabinet.

The Congress central leadership appeared resigned to the collapse of the government although it rushed state minder K.C. Venugopal to Bangalore in the afternoon. “We can’t match the BJP’s money power,” a senior politician said.

State Congress working president Eshwar Khandre hoped a solution could be worked out, suggesting that one option was to accommodate the dissidents in the ministry. “The party high command will decide,” he said.

Party communications chief Randeep Surjewala openly accused the BJP of pressuring and luring the alliance MLAs to join it.

BJP leaders tried to deflect the blame to P.C. Siddaramaiah, chairman of the coalition coordination committee and former Congress chief minister.

“Siddaramaiah is behind these resignations. He doesn’t want Deve Gowda and his family to be in power,” BJP Lok Sabha member Prahlad Joshi said.

Earlier, when the 11 strode into the Speaker’s office at the Assembly, they found to their surprise that Kumar was not in. He was visiting a critically ill relative in hospital. Shortly afterwards, Kumar left the city.

He later told reporters at his Kolar home that his office had informed him about the lawmakers’ arrival and that he had asked his officials to receive the resignations and issue acknowledgements.

Congress trouble-shooter and minister D.K. Shivakumar rushed to the Assembly to try and dissuade the rebels MLAs. He took four of them home but to no avail.

A JDS youth leader had in February purportedly recorded state BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa offering money and position if his father, an MLA, switched to the BJP. On Thursday, JDS lawmaker K. Mahadeva claimed he had been offered Rs 40 crore to switch sides.

“We have nothing to do with their resignations,” Yeddyurappa said on Saturday.