Congress MPs, along with Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Anand Sharma, held a protest against the BJP outside Parliament on Thursday over the political crisis which has hit the party in Karnataka and Goa.

The protest was staged near the Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex. The protesters raised slogans and carried placards with messages like 'Save Democracy'.

The MPs also criticised the detention of Karnataka minister D.K. Shivakumar and his Congress colleagues Milind Deora and Naseem Khan outside a Mumbai hotel and said they condemned “the poaching of Congress leaders under the ruling regime of the BJP”.

The Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka is on the brink of collapse after several MLAs, mostly of the Congress, resigned.

The BJP has claimed that the Karnataka government has been reduced to a minority and has demanded chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's resignation.

In Goa, the Congress suffered a setback on Wednesday when 10 of its 15 MLAs 'merged' with the BJP.

The Congress leadership has blamed the BJP for the desertions in both states.