The resignation of two Congress MLAs has rekindled the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hopes yet again. The party speculates that the resignations will create a momentum among the dissident legislators and more from the coalition will resign and jump ship, giving them enough numbers to topple the government.
The number game
The BJP needs 15 coalition MLAs to resign to push the government into a minority and form an alternative government with 105 of its legislators. The party is yet to mop up the requisite number of legislators to resign and switch sides, multiple sources in the party said on Monday. Party strategists put the number of MLAs now ready to resign in the range of 9 to 11, still away from the magic number of 15.
While BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa, speaking to mediapersons on Monday, put the number of disgruntled MLAs in Congress and JD(S) at over 20, the BJP has not been able to get the adequate number of legislators to resign at once to topple the government. The resignation of two MLAs – B.S. Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi – is seen as a strategy to precipitate the situation. BJP leader R. Ashok termed the resignations as “a beginning of the end” of the coalition government.
While the BJP so far has been trying to poach Congress MLAs, a senior leader admitted that three to four JD(S) MLAs, most of them Vokkaligas and all from Old Mysore region, were ready to switch sides. They argued that this showed how the Chief Minister had “lost hold of the region” following the Lok Sabha debacle in Mandya and Tumakuru.
No ‘political sanyasi’
The BJP, however, has opted to maintain distance from the efforts to topple the coalition government. Mr. Yeddyurappa and Mr. Ashok, speaking to mediapersons on Monday, denied that the party was doing ‘Operation Kamala’ or wooing MLAs. The coalition government will fall under the weight of its own contradictions. The BJP is adopting a wait and watch approach, the party leaders said.
Mr. Yeddyurappa was quick to add that he was no “political sanyasi” and would form an alternative government with the rebels from Congress and JD(S) if they topple the government. “We will not allow midterm polls in the State. We have the mandate of the people and we will adopt constitutional means to form an alternative government if this one falls,” he said.
