HDK govt once again on a political tailspin

Nearly 10 Cong MLAs have reportedly vanished from the political radar

The JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka went into a tailspin late Saturday night with nearly 10 rebel Congress leaders reportedly vanishing from the political radar.

Sources said these MLAs have been taken to an undisclosed destination in Maharashtra.

Most of these MLAs are either supporters of the powerful Jarkiholi brothers of Belagavi – Ramesh and Satish – or that of Anand Singh, a mining baron from Bellari who was earlier with the BJP and is now in the Congress fold.

The JD(S)-Congress coordination committee chief and former CM of Karnataka Siddaramaiah held two rounds of meetings, but there are conflicting versions of the outcome.

What gave credence to the rumours of a revolt in the Congress was that the Jarkiholi brothers refused to go to Delhi for talks with the party highcommand even as they protected their flock of nearly 16 MLAs.

Miffed at being sidelined and with the Congress not taking any action against the powerful and rich Congress party's water resources minister DK Sivakumar, the Jarkiholi brothers have reportedly scaled up their demand.

Now the brothers want a deputy CM post in order to show Sivakumar his place. DKS, as Sivakumar is known, has spread his influence to north Karnataka through MLA Laxmi Hebalkar – a turf fiercely protected by the Jarkiholis.

At the other end is Anand Singh who has raised a banner of revolt from the iron ore mining heartland of Bellari. He too wants a ministerial berth in the Cabinet.

Waiting on the sidelines is the BJP which has its 'Operation Kamala' plan ready for implementation. BJP state unit chief BS Yeddyurappa reportedly wants to go in for a kill by asking the rebel Congress and a few JD(S) MLAs to resign and recontest either as independents or on BJP tickets. But party chief Amit Shah has asked Yeddyurappa not to precipitate matters now and wait for the coalition to collapse on its own.

Meanwhile, CM Kumarasawamy once again found himself in a soup when he urged people to revolt against the BJP for trying to poach MLAs from the JD(S) fold.

While JD(S) sought the speaker's intervention to foil BJP attempts to get ruling party MLAs to resign, the BJP urged the governor to take steps to prosecute Kumaraswamy under the sedition law for saying he would have to ask people to revolt against the saffron party.

As the crisis snowballed, senior leaders of the JD(S) and Congress met at Siddaramaiah's house. The former CM reportedly gave a piece of his mind to Kumaraswamy asking him to watch his words while speaking in public.

JD(S) plan is to somehow protect its MLAs. But should the BJP manage to poach MLAs, sources say the leaders have decided on a Plan B: To ask the speaker not to accept their resignations.

Plan C: Foil the BJP plans by dissolving the assembly.