Horse-Trading In Karnataka? Ruling Congress, BJP Accuse Each Other Of Plotting Defections
There may not be an election in sight, but Karnataka's political atmosphere is heating up as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims the Congress is luring MLAs to settle the leadership struggle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar. The Congress, in turn, has hit back, saying that 10 to 15 MLAs from the BJP-Janata Dal Secular alliance are knocking on its doors, wanting to jump ship.
Senior minister and Industries Minister MB Patil claimed that several disgruntled MLAs from the saffron alliance were 'keen to join" the Congress.
Patil said, 'We have over 140 MLAs in the Congress now. The BJP's dream of bringing down the Congress won't be realised, as at least 80-85 MLAs have to defect for that. In 2019, they [the BJP] managed to get 19 MLAs to defect to their side and help them form the government. But it won't happen again. What Operation Lotus are you talking about? It is their MLAs who are knocking on our doors now."
A senior Congress leader said that while there have been several feelers from a section of BJP leaders to the Congress, there are BJP leaders who are fed up with the constant infighting in the party, especially from the factions caught between BJP's Vijayendra and JDS's H D Kumaraswamy.
'Even within the JDS, there's growing frustration under H D Kumaraswamy's leadership. There are MLAs who want to jump ship and are waiting in the wings—it may be just a matter of time," said a senior Congress functionary.
Joshi was reacting to a claim made by Hungund Congress MLA Vijayanand Kashappanavar, who said the BJP had drawn up a list of 55 Congress MLAs it was targeting. Kashappanavar said the BJP was threatening MLAs with central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to get them to defect.
Joshi denied this outright and turned the charge around: 'It is the Congress that is busy buying its own MLAs to keep the CM post intact. Kashappanavar's statements are false and only meant to hide the internal dealings going on within their party," Joshi said.
Operation Kamala déjà vu?
The accusations have revived memories of Operation Kamala—the BJP's infamous but effective strategy of engineering defections. First executed in 2008, it helped BS Yediyurappa form the government by getting opposition MLAs to resign, contest again on BJP tickets, and win with a big margin.
It was pulled off again in 2019—this time bringing down the Congress-JDS coalition government of H D Kumaraswamy. As many as 19 Congress MLAs and 3 from the JD(S) resigned, collapsing the 14-month-old government and paving the way for the BJP's return, once again under the leadership of B.S. Yediyurappa. He was later replaced mid-term by Basavaraj Bommai.
Earlier claims
In August last year, Congress MLA Ravikumar Gowda from Mandya made a sensational claim: the BJP had upped its offer to MLAs from Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore. 'Someone called me and said they were ready to buy 50 MLAs at Rs 100 crore. I told him to keep the money—I even thought of complaining to the ED," Gowda had said.
'They're trying every day to destabilise our government, but no one's falling for it. Our government is stable, our CM is strong," he insisted when speaking to this reporter.
In November 2023, Patil had once again stirred the pot by claiming that more than 20 BJP MLAs and around 10 from the JDS were ready to join the Congress. This came right after HD Kumaraswamy offered to support Shivakumar with 19 MLAs if he wanted to take over as CM.
However, political equations have since changed—Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar are now arch-rivals, and Kumaraswamy is a Union Minister, with his JDS now in alliance with the BJP.
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