BJP may have to pay price for 2019 ‘Op Kamala’

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: The roots of the recent comments by Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar about accommodating former Congressmen who joined BJP, as Lok Sabha candidates and BJP MLA from Yeshwantpur ST Somashekar being openly disgruntled can be traced back to July 2019.

Operation Kamala – a euphemism for poaching MLAs – ensured BJP toppled the Congress-JD(S) coalition and came to power but in doing so set up fresh fault lines as Somashekhar pointed out on Thursday.

The Yeshwantpur MLA said that many in the BJP had worked against him and tried to defeat him in the May 10 polls but without much success, laying bare the worst kept secret of the saffron party: a civil war of sorts between the turncoats and loyalists.

For context, BJP had won 103 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections, leading to a hung Assembly. The ruling Congress had managed 80 seats while JD(S) had 37.

Together they formed a coalition government with 118 seats with the help of JD(S) ally N Mahesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA from Kollegal in Chamarajanagara district.

In July 2019 however, BJP engineered the defection of 17 MLAs, which included members of both parties. As a result, the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government fell.

As many as 14 of the rebel MLAs won the by-polls for their seats and put BS Yediyurappa back in the saddle as chief minister. However, this came at a price since 10 of the turncoats had to be given ministries, sparking backlash from party loyalists and their supporters who expected to be rewarded instead.

Many among the party cadre tried to defeat the turncoats. Perhaps, the worst example was seen in Athani constituency in Belagavi district where BJP fielded former Congressman and protégé of Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumathalli.

Meanwhile, Laxman Savadi, formerly of BJP, contested on a Congress ticket beating Kumathalli by more than 76,000 votes. Saffron party cadre working against their own candidate or giving campaigns a miss are said to have to cost them.

Back in May, one of the Operation Kamala MLAs MTB Nagaraj infamously remarked “he lost and made lose too” indirectly referring to former ministerial colleague K Sudhakar.

The remarks came in the backdrop of BJP finishing with 66 seats while Congress romped home with a 135 seat victory.