The Congress-JDS alliance might be seeing a fresh ‘Operation Lotus’. The Congress party alleges that the BJP have been trying to shop a few of their MLAs.
Five MLAs from the ruling Congress party have gone missing and have no contact with the party. However the Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy (HDK) insists that these MLAs are in Mumbai and are in touch with him.
Congress minister DK Shivakumar says that the missing MLAs are in the company of other BJP MLAs and BJP leaders. Shivkumar wishes that Chief Minister Kumaraswamy goes public with the evidence to expose the BJP.
Meanwhile over a hundred BJP MLAs are camping at resort in Gurgaon. The BJP has a counter charge alleging that the Chief Minister was trying to split its flock.
The CM HD Kumaraswamy says that his government isn’t under any threat.
What do numbers say?
The Karnataka assembly has 224 members and the majority mark is 113. The Congress-JDS government have a comfortable 118 and the BJP stand at 104.
Assuming if there is vote of confidence now and these 5 members vote against the Government. The HDK led coalition would still remain in power at the majority mark 113.
For the BJP to form the government it needs close to 15 Congress-JDS members to quit the assembly or vote against the government. Which seems an impossible task.
(The Pigeon Express Opinion – Yes, the Karnataka government is managing to balance itself but for how long? If I site recent scenarios their opponents are masters in spliting and horse trading. Money and muscle power should not harm institutions. Believe you me this kind of cheap tricks ruins the structure of democracy. )