It was a marathon session that had the country hooked. The Karnataka election itself may not have been remarkable or out of the ordinary, but the result, which threw up a hung assembly and the ensuing politicking, is the stuff legendary political suspense thrillers are made of – blink, and you’d miss an entire episode.
So, for those who need a quick and painless recap, here goes.
Within three hours of the vote count on 15 May, by around 11 am, it looked like the game was over for the Congress. The BJP was leading in 115 seats and party workers like Shekhar Chahal Modi Fan here, had only just begun celebrating the dream of a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’.
Except, it was too soon. By 2 pm, the BJP’s lead had slipped to 104, the Congress had settled at 78, and the JD(S) was at 38 seats. With no single party touching the halfway mark of 112, Karnataka had done the unthinkable and proven the exit polls right. It was a hung assembly.
Unwilling to be outwitted again (like in Goa, Manipur, Bihar, Arunachal) the Congress party quickly announced that it would support the JD(S) to form government.
Mathematically, Congress’ 78 seats + JD(S) + BSP’s 38 = 116, well over the 112 halfway mark. The opportunity to become Chief Minister again and a shot at national relevance ahead of 2019 was too tempting an opportunity for the JD(S) Chief HD Kumaraswamy, who quickly accepted Congress’ offer.
For Siddaramaiah, an ex-JD(S) turned Congressman, it was a day of ironies. Not only had he fought and lost his last election, but the one shot that he had at being in government came at the cost of giving up the chief minister’s seat to his bitter political foe, HD Kumaraswamy.
Not One to Walk Away From a Fight
But the BJP wasn’t going to sit back and let victory slip from within its reach. With 104 seats, the party was 8 MLAs short of the magic 112 figure. What were its options?
- Convince Governor Vajubhai Vala, who just happens to be an ex-RSS and BJP man, of its ability to form a stable government. (CHECK)
- Buy time from the Governor to prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly. (CHECK)
- Convince the independent MLAs, of which there was exactly one, to support the BJP government. (CHECK)
- Also woo the sole winning candidate of the Karnataka Pragyavantha Janata Party. (KPJP) (UNCONFIRMED)
- Hope rival party MLAs have a “change of heart” and abstain from the vote, regardless of the fact that they would invoke the Anti-Defection Law, which would disqualify their election as MLA and their ability to contest future elections. (FAILED)
Of the above, the BJP was successful in achieving 1, 2 and 3. As per reports, efforts were made to woo the KPJP MLA and the Congress-JD(S) leaders alleged that a cash-rich BJP was willing to drop Rs 100 crore on each MLA it ‘bought’.
This is horse-trading, a crude yet common political practice that the BJP vehemently denies indulging in.
Rich Politician Problems: Horse-Trading and Resort Politics
According to The Quint’s sources, at the Congress party legislature meet, only 70 MLAs ultimately showed up. Eight – exactly the number of MLAs that BJP needed – were missing in action, off the Congress’ radar.
Not surprisingly, the Congress leadership did not think its MLAs (who people like you and I have elected) had the steel to resist Rs 100 crore. So the party corralled them like horses into the luxurious Eagleton Resorts on the outskirts of Bengaluru city.
This is what is referred to as ‘Resort Politics’.
Grown men, elected politicians all, with families to cater to and constituencies to take care of, were denied access to their mobile phones, internet and TV news to keep them “safe” from “poachers”.
This, incidentally, is routine for Karnataka.
While Congress MLAs cooled their heels at the resort, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa went in for the kill. At 8 pm on 16 May, he approached the Governor, for the second time, to stake claim to the government and sought one week’s time to prove majority on the floor of the House.
The Honorable Governor Vajubhai Vala gave him two weeks.
The swearing-in ceremony would take place the next morning.
Midnight Court Drama
In response, the Congress party, that had already made preparations to move the Supreme Court, filed a petition to prevent Yeddyurappa from taking oath as Chief Minister.
In an unprecedented move, at 12 am, the Registrar at the Supreme Court examined Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s petition, woke the Chief Justice of India up, who agreed to constitute a bench to hear the case.
A bench comprising Justices AK Sikri, Ashok Bhushan and SA Bobde began hearing the case at 2:10 am. Apart from a stay on Yeddyurappa’s swearing-in, the petition also sought quashing of the Governor’s invitation to the BJP to form government and to allow an opportunity for the Congress-JD(S) alliance to prove majority in a floor test in the Karnataka assembly.
At 6 am on 18 May, the Supreme Court announced its decision.
The court refused to stay BS Yeddyurappa’s swearing-in ceremony, but agreed that his chief ministership and the formation of the BJP government in Karnataka was subject to the outcome of the case.
At 9:30 am, BS Yeddyurappa took oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Within hours, he had ordered a bunch of transfers, and high-ranking state intelligence bureau and police officials were shuffled and a new state Attorney General was also appointed. In his first press conference as CM, BS Yeddyurappa also announced a farm and crop loan waiver.
Game, Set, Match
Even as the newly sworn-in Chief Minister feasted on what looked suspiciously like jalebis in Bengaluru, the Supreme Court in Delhi pronounced its decision on the midnight petition filed by the Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi the day before.
The Supreme Court ordered a floor test on 18 May at 4 pm. In effect, it gave BS Yeddyurappa exactly one day to prove he had the numbers – 104 (BJP) + 8 MLAs (?) = 112 MLAs. Not one week as requested by BSY, not 15 days as granted by Governor Vala. One day only.
The Supreme Court also refused to grant the BJP’s request for the floor test to be held via a secret ballot. So, if any Congress MLA were to go against his party whip and vote for Yeddyurappa, everyone would know.
You’d have thought it would be easy to convince someone to stay on for a free resort holiday, but with at least 2 MLAs believed to have gone rogue, the JD(S) and the Congress struggled to keep their flock together.
Through the day, however, Congress and the JD(S) received moral boosters from opposition leaders like Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, BSP Chief Mayawayti, MK Stalin of DMK, the Aam Aadmi Party and even the Shiv Sena. It also spurred the Congress to challenge the BJP governments in Goa and Manipur.
And then came the Congress’ *mic drop* moment.
The party released taped phone conversations purportedly between Janardhan Reddy and a Congress MLA, allegedly trying to him to vote for the BJP.
“You would earn a hundred times what you’ve lost,” Janardhan Reddy purportedly told the unconvinced Congress MLA. The BJP blamed the Congress’ ‘Dirty Tricks Department’ for the said exposé and labelled it a ‘fake’.
The Grounded Floor Test
On the morning of 19 May, buses full of Congress and JD(S) MLAs made their way back to the Assembly. With the floor test scheduled for 4 pm, it was protocol to have all the 222 members take oath as MLAs first.
At 1 pm, the Congress party dropped another bomb.
A second phone recording, purportedly between BS Yeddyurappa and BC Patil. The Congress accused Yeddyurappa of trying to poach Patil by offering him a minister’s post. Two more would follow shortly after. As far as public image goes, the BJP looked battered.
The final blow came at 3:30 pm, when the two ‘missing’ Congress MLAs – Anand Singh and Pratap Gowda Patil – were seen entering the Karnataka assembly, escorted by DK Shivakumar – a clear indication that they were still with their respective parties.
Moments later, Yeddyurappa addressed the Assembly and ended his 30-minute-long emotional speech by announcing that he was going to submit his resignation to the Governor.
The Congress-JD(S) alliance had won.
While it’s clear that JD(S) Chief HD Kumaraswamy will be Chief Minister, hectic negotiations are on for ministries. The ‘unnatural alliance’ will be put to the test when by-elections are held in 2 Lok Sabha seats and four assembly constituencies. As per the data available, had the Congress and JD(S) forged a pre-poll alliance, they would’ve emerged as the clear winner. Will it be enough for the bypolls? And will the alliance survive till 2019?
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