BENGALURU: The much-hyped ‘resort politics’ operation of the Congress was thrown into disarray even before it could take off. The party had planned to fly Madhya Pradesh MLAs to Karnataka and shelter them at Wonderla resort near Bidadi to prevent cross-voting or poaching ahead of the June 18 Rajya Sabha polls. Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar was personally overseeing the exercise — repeating the 2017 strategy he had used to protect Gujarat MLAs for the late Ahmed Patel.
However, in a major setback, the Election Commission rejected the candidature of Congress’ Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natarajan. As a result, all 63 Congress MLAs who were scheduled to fly to Bengaluru on Tuesday evening remain in Bhopal. Only one MLA who was travelling on his own reached Bengaluru.
Senior Congress leaders had earlier confirmed the mass relocation plan, with sources stating that each MLA would be accompanied by an aide and personal security, turning the resort into a heavily guarded “poach-proof” camp with 24x7 vigil, phone restrictions, and on-site minders for nine days. KPCC leaders had publicly assured that the legislators would be “housed safely in Bengaluru till the date of the polls”.
The move was triggered by BJP fielding a fifth candidate, sparking fears of aggressive wooing by the saffron party. The Congress had accused the BJP of desperate attempts to secure extra votes, prompting the resort operation.
Party insiders have admitted the irony of resort politics: Many Gujarat MLAs sheltered in Bengaluru in 2017 later defected to the BJP, part of a larger exodus in which Congress claims to have lost over 2,000 representatives to the saffron party in the past 12 years. With polls just days away, the sudden disqualification has put the Congress strategy on hold.
“This is an unfortunate practice followed in recent decades. ‘Resort politics’ is not exclusive to the Congress, the BJP too resorts to it. This tendency reflects the leadership’s lack of confidence in their party members,” said Prof PS Jayaramu, a political analyst.