BENGALURU: The plan was elaborate, specific and timed to perfection but it was also a stroke of luck that the BJP got more than it wished for when 12 legislators of the Congress-JDS coalition resigned en masse on Saturday.
Emboldened by the development, the BJP is now confident that the total number of resignations will climb up to 20, annihilating the coalition.
Even as it prepares to secure its numbers with a legislature party meeting on Monday, scheduled to be followed by shifting its legislators to a private hotel, the BJP is working towards ways to bring the coalition to its knees.
“We will neither move a no-confidence motion nor approach the governor right now. We will wait for the coalition to resign. Then, we will make our move,” said a source close to BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa.
BJP’s game plan seems to be to make the coalition desperate to cling on to the last strand of the possibility of its survival before delivering a shock with another slew of resignations.
Currently, the coalition stands precariously at the simple majority of 106 if the resignations of the 13 legislators are accepted and the House strength falls to 211. The BJP is predicting seven more resignations before the assembly session begins on July 12.
“The lone BSP MLA Mahesh and independent MLA-turned-minister H Nagesh will switch sides. The coalition will be reduced to less than 100,” said a BJP office-bearer.
With coalition hanging by a strand, the BJP is now closing its ranks. Legislators of the saffron party will be shifted to a private hotel on Monday to stall any possible attempts by the coalition to approach them.
Yeddyurappa will chair a legislature party meeting on Monday afternoon after which the MLAs will be herded at a hotel where they are expected to remain till the assembly session commences.
“Nobody wants full-fledged elections. We are only looking at bypolls in seats that will fall vacant after Speaker Ramesh Kumar accepts the resignations that have already been submitted and those that are yet to come,” said a BJP leader.
In the eventuality of the Speaker delays accepting the resignations or rejects them, the rebel MLAs are most likely to either cross-vote or refrain from the House proceedings leaving the coalition weak.