Following months of uncertainty and political manoeuvres, the much-talked-about ‘Operation Lotus‘ turned out to be successful in Karnataka. In a TV debate on a prominent news channel, Nawab Malik, a senior NCP leader, shared a similar view on Tuesday. It was a gradual but solid endeavour by the BJP to finish the 14-month-long Cong-JDS rule in that southern state. The CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury alleged that BJP’s “brazen horse-trading and misuse of power” led to the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government. The Deccan Herald wrote: “the air of Karnataka was heavy with a smell of an imminent defeat and beginning of a new reign.”
With the fall of the coalition government, reference of the MLA’s numbers changed and merged with the hearts of the new political party leaders. The bigger total of 105 before the poor strength of 99 split the heart of Kumaraswamy for he also somewhere knew of the unfavourable result after counting of the votes.
Although Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the people of Karnataka lost democracy following the collapse of the state government, the unity of Opposition was not torn asunder amid all the political crisis that ensued after the resignation of as many as 15 legislatures. It brought the necessity of trust vote because the eligibility of the coalition hanged in imbalance.
In swift action against the party’s lone MLA N Mahesh, the BSP supremo expelled him for not appearing in Congress-JD(S) support on the floor test of the assembly. The legislator remained absent during the trust vote, thereby flouting the direction of the party’s High Command instantly. Considering this irresponsible attitude as grave indiscipline, the BSP supremo Mayawati expelled him from the party with immediate effect. While he said that he had been told to remain neutral. “I had not violated any order or Behenji’s order. Our party in charge M P Ashok Siddarth told me to abstain from voting, keep neutral and do not support any party. He also said, “I’ll stay in BSP today and tomorrow”.
Elated with the win of confidence motion by the support of the legislatures in the state assembly, Yeddyurappa claimed the age of development would dawn upon the people of the state from now onwards. People were unhappy with the coalition government. Did the Karnataka assembly drama not remind us of the past days’ similar political conflicts?