BENGALURU: Billed as a trial run for the bigger operation to bring down the coalition government, the battle for 3 seats of the Legislative Council has proved an anti-climax with BJP shying away from it. The election of two Congress candidates Nasser Ahmed and M C Venugopal and JD(S) nominee M H Ramesh Gowda is now a mere formality.
BJP, which had given a scare to coalition partners Congress and JD(S) with plans to field political heavyweights Malikaiah Guttedar, C P Yogeshwar and B J Puttaswamy amid speculations of effecting cross voting by dissidents in the rival camps, backed out at the last minute on Monday, the last day for filing of nominations.
The October 4 by-poll was seen as a trailer of the bigger political drama that was expected in the light of dissident activities in the Congress and JD(S) camps and BJP State president B S Yeddyurappa’s repeated claims of the coalition government’s fall soon.
Guttedar, Yogeshwar and Puttaswamy were asked to be ready to file their nominations on Sunday. However, the Congress and JD(S) leadership’s success in ‘managing the rebels’ and keeping their flock together forced Yeddyurappa to abandon his plans.
Though Yeddyurappa was given the freedom to decide on the by-poll strategy, the party bosses were clear in their message. “Field the candidates only if there is a possibility of winning and ensure that the party does not suffer humiliation from any misadventure,” a former BJP minister told The New Indian Express.
Cong-JD(S) counter operation scare led to change in BJP stand
Apart from the lack of numbers, it is also said that the scare of “Counter Operation” from Congress and JD(S) to get a few BJP MLAs to cross-vote also contributed to change of stand in the BJP camp.“The BJP was ready to field its candidates hoping that Congress MLAs will cross-vote in their favour but now have withdrawn fearing their own MLAs will cross-vote against them. This shows that their claims that our MLAs are willing to support them are all false,” AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said.
The BJP bosses in the state were optimistic till Saturday evening, but disappointment started setting in after former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah succeeded in “handling the 3--4 Congress MLAs who showed signs of changing loyalties,” BJP sources said.
BJP State general secretary N Ravikumar said, “With 104 members, we do not have the numbers to win in the by-poll. We decided not to contest as the party leadership felt that defeat of our candidates under the present situation would embarrass the party.” One of the proposed BJP candidates speaking to TNIE expressed his dismay at the way party leadership handled the issue. “I was first asked to be ready to contest despite my reluctance and then conveyed the message that they have changed their plans. The whole episode could have been avoided,” he said.
BJP with a strength of 104 in the Assembly needed to effect cross-voting by 8 MLAs to score the magic figure of 112 to win a seat. The task proved impossible by Sunday and the decision to abandon the plan was taken on Monday morning.