'I want to finish JD(S)'

CM says there should be only two national parties in the state -- Congress and the BJP. Yeddyurappa has hinted that Operation Lotus will continue once the crisis his government is facing gets resolved

Fear of Operation Lotus -- an initiative of B S Yeddyurappa to poach legislators from the opposition parties -- appears to have made JD(S) boss H D Deve Gowda lobby even harder to oust the BJP government in the state.


The hunt begins: Yeddyurappa had poached MLAs from the opposition
parties to substantiate his support base and so far, 18 legislators have
fallen prey to Operation Lotus. File pic

BJP were three seats short of majority when it won 110 seats in the assembly held in 2008, and Yeddyurappa formed government with the support of six independent legislators. Later, he poached MLAs from the opposition parties, Congress and JD(S), to substantiate his support base and so far, 18 legislators have fallen prey to Operation Lotus.

While JD(S) is the main victim, the CM is threatening to continue the operation once the ongoing political crisis is resolved. He has made his intentions clear saying, "I want to finish the JD(S). There must be only two national parties -- Congress and BJP -- in the state."

A personal issue
Even as Gowda and his son H D Kumaraswamy, who is also state president of the JD(S), have taken the ouster of the Yeddyurappa government as a personal issue, it has become a question of survival for their party.

"Operation Lotus is a menace to democracy. Yeddyurappa has said he would finish our party through the operation and 10 of our MLAs have lined up," said Deve Gowda after he arrived at Delhi to join Kumaraswamy camping in the national capital, lobbying with the Congress leaders for dismissal of the Yeddyurappa government.

He added, "To stop this, we must see that his government goes. Apart from this, the constitution should be upheld and the SC judgment of quashing the disqualification of rebel MLAs should be respected."

While the names of the JD(S) legislator lined up for the operation are not known, Subhas Guttedar and S K Basavarajan are said to be in talks with the BJP leaders.

Interestingly, as insiders in the BJP revealed, Yeddyurappa wants to spare Congress this time from 'Operation Lotus', as a sign of bonhomie.

"It is a strategic move to take Congress into confidence. In fact, the Congress too wants to weaken the JD(S) in the state. The first step is to save the government, next will be a scripted drama," said a senior BJP leader.

Some changes
According to sources in the Congress, the union government is thinking on the lines of issuing a strict warning to the state government through the governor, while allowing the government to function. In the bargain, it might ask to change speaker K G Bopaiah, who has come under scathing attack in the wake of the SC passing strictures against him for disqualifying the MLAs.

However, the Congress is understood to have chosen a safe route by going slow on the issue. Although the Central cabinet met yesterday, the Karnataka issue did not come up for discussion.

Frustrated over the hesitation of the Congress, Deve Gowda, said, "There should not any delay whatsoever in sacking the most corrupt government. The SC verdict is clear, but I don't know why the UPA government is taking so much of time to act."

Not very promising
He even tried to garner support of the opposition parties at the centre in a bid to put pressure on the government regarding this, but the response was not encouraging.

While the left parties and Rashtriya Lok Dal attended the meeting called by him, Telugu Desam Party, Asom Gana Parishad and Biju Janata Dal stayed away, even after promising to attend.

Gowda even met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to drive the point home, but he did not get any clear or positive response.