WITH THE POACHING season over for now, politicians in Karnataka are out of the woods (read resorts).
The BJP’s ‘Operation Kamala’—to topple the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government by poaching Congress rebel MLAs—failed yet again (it has been using this tactic since 2008 when the BJP, with 110 of 224 seats, needed three seats for a clear majority). As the BJP herded its 104 legislators to the ITC Grand Bharat in Gurugram on January 14, a few disgruntled Congress MLAs, headed by Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, quietly checked into a Mumbai hotel. Also, two independent MLAs—H. Nagesh and R. Shankar—withdrew their support to the government. On January 18, the Congress packed off its 79 MLAs to the Eagleton resort in Bengaluru. The deadlock ended when Sri Shivakumara Swami, head pontiff of Siddaganga Mutt, died on January 21, and the cooped up MLAs rushed to Tumakuru to pay their last respects.
While it managed to avert a coup, the Congress is far from triumphant. The midnight brawl between Vijayanagar MLA Anand Singh and Kampli MLA J.N. Ganesh, said to be Singh’s protege, on January 20 at the resort embarrassed the party further. Singh, in his police complaint, said, “Ganesh accused me of not extending financial aid to him during the elections. He used expletives and assaulted me by throwing a flowerpot. He grabbed me and banged my head against the wall. He said I had ruined his political career and he would kill me.” Ganesh, who denied the assault, was booked for attempt to murder and criminal intimidation. Protests have erupted in Hospet, with Singh’s supporters demanding Ganesh’s arrest.
As per his election affidavit, Ganesh has no criminal record, while Singh has 16 criminal cases. Singh, who is out on bail in a 2013 case related to the illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port, was inducted into the BJP by the Reddy brothers. He won the Hospet seat in 2008 and 2013. He joined the Congress ahead of the 2018 polls.
“The doctors suspect a hairline fracture in his right cheekbone and one in the ribs, where he was punched,” Singh’s brother-in-law Santosh told THE WEEK. “Doctors will decide if he needs surgery after the swelling around his eyes subsides,” He claimed that the trigger for the fight was election funding, and that Singh had funded Ganesh’s election the two times he had contested (in 2013 as an independent and in 2018 on a Congress ticket). But, sources said that Ganesh was furious with Singh for spoiling his prospects of joining the BJP. He was in Mumbai with the rebels, and flew back to Ballari via Bengaluru when the coup attempt was exposed. Shocked at the assault, deputy chief minister G. Parameshwara said, “In the last three decades of my career, I have not come across such behaviour by any elected representative. Politicians have stooped so low.”
Also, there is an ongoing power tussle within the Congress between Vokkaliga strongman D.K. Shivakumar and Jarkiholi, who was dropped from the cabinet. After Jarkiholi claimed that he had support of enough MLAs to rock the coalition, the Congress convened a special Congress Legislature Party meeting of its MLAs. CLP leader Siddaramaiah issued a notice, warning members that skipping the meet would attract action under the anti-defection law. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy also deployed the state intelligence machinery to locate the rebels. JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda, however, mocked the Congress: “All my 38 MLAs, including my daughter-in-law, are with me. The Congress should set its house in order.”
Despite the notice, four MLAs—Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumathalli, Dr Umesh Jadhav and B. Nagendra—skipped the CLP meet. Many disgruntled MLAs, who were kept out of the cabinet, said the coalition had little to offer; a few others alleged neglect by the “JD(S) chief minister” in allocation of funds and transfer of officers.
The Congress dangled cabinet berths to lure the rebel MLAs, but once they turned up at the CLP meeting, they were taken to the Eagleton resort. Again, the task of monitoring the legislators at the resort fell on Shivakumar and his younger brother, D.K. Suresh (in 2017, Shivakumar had hosted 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at the resort, ahead of Ahmed Patel’s reelection to the Rajya Sabha).
For the BJP, which is sulking after the poll debacles in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, forming a government in Karnataka would have been a shot in the arm ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. It is still closely watching the growing dissent within the Congress.
But, was ‘Operation Kamala’ only a bid to wrest power? Or, was it also to show the coalition in a bad light? When the JD(S) and the Congress joined hands last May, national opposition parties hailed the coalition as a successful template for future alliances. But, the lack of coordination among the allies came to the fore during cabinet formation and appointment of members to boards and corporations and during the selection of the chairman of the Legislative Council. Deve Gowda has frequently warned the Congress against playing “big brother”. The Congress, on the other hand, is being arm-twisted into giving 10-12 (of 28) Lok Sabha seats to the JD(S), which is likely to upset sitting Congress MPs. It is, therefore, said that this time ‘Operation Kamala’ was engineered, not by the BJP, but by Congress rebels.
Also, frequent political turmoil has put governance on the back burner. The farm loan waiver is yet to reach farmers, and the state is reeling under drought. The BJP is trying to send out a strong message that a coalition cannot ensure stable governance.
The recent political crisis has also triggered a debate on ‘resort politics’. In an open letter to political parties, writers and activists wrote: “The elected representatives indulging in the dirty politics of horse trading, especially when the common man is suffering, is an insult to the state. This is not ideology, but opportunism.”
It is worrying that political parties consider their MLAs as commodities that can be easily bought by rivals. It also raises concerns over the integrity of elected representatives. Moreover, the tendency of parties to circumvent the anti-defection law to destabilise an elected government calls for a remedy, too.