The immediate trigger for the poaching of lawmakers in Madhya Pradesh, where Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s government has a razor-thin majority, is the forthcoming biennial Rajya Sabha elections, where the Congress plus allies stand to win two seats if they manage to hold on to their numbers. The BJP is trying to snatch a seat from the Congress by inducing defections. Dramatic scenes last week where the BJP herded 10 MLAs of the Congress and its allies to a plush resort in Gurugram and the subsequent whisking away of four of them to Karnataka—as the rest were ‘rescued’ by the grand old party—indicated its desperation to draw grumpy MLAs.
If former CM Digvijaya Singh’s claim is anything to go by, each was promised `25-30 crore in instalments for the cross-over. Though Digvijaya is no saint in such matters, he ought to be upset because a few of the MLAs still holed up in Karnataka were part of his faction before they switched sides. That was how he got wind of what is called Operation Rangpanchmi. Digvijaya is lobbying for an RS berth but the defection of his loyalists could possibly hurt his chances.
Ever since B S Yediyurappa snatched power from H D Kumaraswamy’s JD(S)-Congress government by poaching coalition MLAs in Karnataka, the BJP in Madhya Pradesh has been longing to replicate his model. More so because the gap between the BJP (107) and Congress (113) is wafer-thin in the 230-member Assembly. But Nath is no Kumaraswamy, who kept cribbing while in office because of ally pressure. Nath actually thrives under adverse circumstances.
He is also a known moneybag and so can offer better deals than the BJP. The crafty CM has already indicated there would be a ministry reshuffle to address the unrest. As for the state BJP unit, it is yet to come to terms with losing after 15 years in power on a trot. Also, the current dirty game of horse-trading does not have the sanction of its central leadership. The slide from a ‘party with a difference’ to being no different from its peers in political morality is telling.