`Operation Lotus’ with a difference: 2 JD(S) MLCs quit and Cong gains
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Jan 21: In a clear bid to prevent JD(S) from staking claim to the leader of opposition’s post in the Karnataka Legislative Council, which carries cabinet minister’s rank and perks, the ruling BJP has carried out its much derided ``Operation Lotus’’ by ensuring the resignation of two MLCs from JD(S) with immediate effect.

Unlike in the past, when the B S Yeddyurappa regime engineered the resignation of MLAs from Congress and JD(S) to quit their seats and thereby reduce the strength of the two parties and subsequently field the same leaders on the BJP symbol in the by-elections as part of the strategy to gain a clear majority in the lower house, the two MLCs – B R Gurudev and N Thippanna – who resigned from JD(S) have not joined BJP, as yet anyway.

However, the resignation of the two JD(S) MLCs submitted on Thursday and immediately accepted by the council chairman Veeranna Matthikatti, who incidentally belongs to the Congress,  has resulted in helping the Congress party’s Motamma continuing as the opposition leader.

In the 75-member upper house, the ruling BJP’s strength has increased to 33 after the recent elections from the local authorities’  constituencies. The combined opposition had an upper hand in the house, though the Congress party with 19 members to JD(S) party’s 17 could stake the claim for the Opposition Leader’s post. The Congress party had named former minister and Congress Working Committee member Motamma, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community, as the opposition  leader when V S Ugrappa’s term expired.

The JD(S) legislature party was smug in the belief that it would gain an upper hand in the council when the newly elected members got sworn in as its strength would have risen to 17 against 16 of Congress. This  would have resulted in Congress party losing the opposition leader’s post with Motamma enjoying it barely for 8 days. In fact, Motamma had indicated that she expected the JD(S) to support her ``if it really believed in social justice’’ or ``back a Dalit woman’’ to put in plain language.

But the JD(S) leadership was cool to the overtures from Congress and informed sources indicated that the party was keen to elevate former minister and a formidable parliamentarian M C Nanaiah to the opposition leader’s post so as to put the Yeddyurappa regime on the mat. The resignation of the two JD(S) MLCs has reduced the party’s strength in the council to 15 from 17, which inter-alia means Congress will continue to enjoy its status as the principal opposition party. The JD(U) is left with a sole member while there are 3 independents.

The ruling party’s strategy of prevailing upon the two JD(S) MLCs – B R Gurudev and N Thippanna – who belong to the Lingayat community, which is totally opposed to the Deve Gowda family and their stranglehold over the Vokkaliga community, has not only prevented JD(S) from gaining the opposition leader’s post but prevented a powerful and skilled parliamentarian like Nanaiah from becoming the instrument to torment the Yeddyurappa regime.  In addition, the BJP’s strategy of helping Motamma, who is a woman and belongs to the Dalit community, would earn it the goodwill from women as well the Dalits.

Thus, the ruling party has ensured that the Congress party would not be in a position to criticise the latest round of ``Operation Lotus’’ unlike in the past. And the JD(S), anyway, has no love lost either for BJP or the Yeddyurappa regime.

Incidentally, Gurudev’s term as MLC is due to expire in June while Thippanna, who had served as state party president when H D Kumaraswamy pulled out of the Dharam Singh-led Congress-JD(S) coalition regime and joined hands with BJP to become the chief minister and eventually quit the party,  had another two years of his term as MLC. Thippanna, who had been sidelined in JD(S), had recently patched up with Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy. However, both Thippanna and Gurudev had uneasy relationship with the Gowda family. Gurudev, in fact, was being constantly wooed by the BJP to join it.

Taken aback by the sudden political development, in which two of its MLCs tendered their resignations and got them immediately accepted, state JD(S) general secretary and party spokesman Y S V Datta, who is also a JD(S) MLC, cried foul and accused the BJP of ``conspiring to deny the opposition leader’s post to JD(S).’’

Thippanna, who is quite close to many of the state and national leaders of BJP, launched a broadside against Deve Gowda and his family.  Accusing the JD(S) supremo and his family of ``insulting and humiliating,’’ Thippanna sarcastically remarked: ``We were fed up with JD(S). I had to come out of this disgusting and suffocating atmosphere. We are not the pet-dogs to be ordered around.’’

Asked if he and his colleague were planning to join the ruling BJP, Thippanna made it clear that there were no such immediate plans. ``I can’t say what will happen in the future,’’ he quipped.