Bangalore, May 28 : As a precautionary measure to prevent any possible horse trading, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka has sent all six independent Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA), who had promised their support to the party, to an unknown destination.

The independents will be directly presented moments before the swearing-in ceremony on Friday.

All the six have been assured of ministerial berths and will be sworn on Friday along with the rest of the BJP MLAs.

The strength of the BJP in Karnataka is 116 after including six independent MLAs, three more than the required strength in the 224-member Legislative Assembly.

The BJP has managed to rope in all the six Independents after Varthur Prakash, an independent who stayed away from joining the party, followed suit late on Tuesday night.

He will be part of the BJP government and will take oath on Friday.

The BJP had won 110 out of the 224 seats, thus falling three short of a majority. After the results were declared on Sunday, the BJP immediately held talks with six Independents and managed to rope in three candidates. Two others followed suit a day later.

The independents supporters of the BJP government are: G Shekhar, S Tangadagi, D Sudhakar, Venkatramanappa, P Narendra Swamy and Varthur Prakash. (ANI)