Former chief minister and BJP’s Lingayat strongman B.S. Yedyurappa is a disillusioned man today after his attempt to poach Congress and JD(S) MLAs in a bid to dislodge the coalition government in Karnataka, failed. Given his age, and his diminishing clout with the party top brass, it may have been his last shot at becoming chief minister. But was Yedyurappa alone to blame for the coup ?
Sources privy to the entire plot of ‘Operation Kamala 4.0’ said that the saffron party may have succeeded in dismantling the coalition government if the top BJP leaders had worked “cohesively,” said a party insider. “It was internal sabotage that killed the operation,” he charged.
“The four Congress MLAs – Ramesh Jarkiholi, Umesh Jadhav, Mahesh K.
and B. Nagendra, who were camping in a five star hotel in Powai, Mumbai would have pulled more lawmakers out of the party as was planned if someone from the BJP Central leadership had spoken to them in person and assured them of a stable future in the saffron party as the plan was to get them to resign en masse on January 17.
But insiders said that when Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari wanted to meet them in Mumbai on Tuesday, he was reportedly ‘stopped’ by party members close to other top leaders. If anyone could have succeeded in convincing them and the rest, it would have been Mr.Gadkari, but he was not reportedly given a free hand. Unfortunately at the same time, BJP President Amit Shah came down with flu and was admitted in a hospital and Railways Minister Piyush Goel was reportedly tasked last minute with overseeing the entire operation.
"In the absence of a strong commitment from the top brass, the four MLAs developed cold feet and opted out of the coup,” said another insider source. “An operation of this magnitude also required huge amount of financial support, which was allegedly lacking from the Central leadership,” he added. At the last count, before the operation was wound up, the State BJP had only nine Congress MLAs in their basket, who were ready to switch sides on promise of plum “rewards,” the source added.
Many BJP party members have also criticized Mr Yeddyurappa for attempting the coup instead of “exposing the lack of governance and reported corruption in the coalition government,” said a party member. “There are so many issues that the BJP as the leading Opposition party could have exposed in the recently concluded Assembly session in Belagavi but they failed to do it,” he added.
However, with the Congress still facing a no-show from the four rebel MLAs, and the nine other disgruntled Congress MLAs still unhappy with Siddaramaiah distributing the cabinet berths only to his coterie, BSY's Operation Lotus may still find some traction.
