USUAL NATAK: MLAs MISSING, BUT WHO IS POACHING WHOM?

BJP ferries its Karnataka MLAs to Gurgaon, alleging that JD(S) was trying to break its ranks; Congress complains some of its lawmakers have gone missing and are holed up in a five-star hotel in Powai, setting off speculation that they are switching sides;

In a day of swift developments and political subterfuge, the Congress, the JD(S) and the BJP – all three -- tried their hand at poaching, thereby fuelling political instability in Karnataka.

It was Congress troubleshooter and senior Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar who first set the cat among the pigeons when he pointed out that three Congress MLAs have suddenly gone missing.

Using the resources at his disposal, DKS, as Shivakumar is known, said that the three MLAs were in the company of senior BJP leader in a hotel in Mumbai.

Sources also claimed that Ramesh Jarkiholi, B Nagendra, Anand Singh, Mahesh Kumatalli and Srimanth Patil -- ace political fence-sitters -are ready to defect.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy at first rubbished the claim of his cabinet colleague and said DKS must be out of his mind. But as the day progressed, the suspicion of DKS got credence and the Congress hit back by saying that 15 BJP MLAs are in touch with the Congress-JD(S) coalition and were ready to jump fence, especially since the saffron brigade was on a slippery slope after the disastrous outing in the recent Assembly polls in the Hindi heartland.

Karnataka Home Minister MB Patil, too, said that BJP MLAs are willing to join the Congress as they are upset with the party. "Our MLAs are in Mumbai. They are in touch with me. But they will come back in a day or two. Nothing wrong in going anywhere. BJP MLAs will join us if need be as they are not happy. If high command agrees then we can take them," Patil said.

A jittery BJP immediately asked all MLAs who had come to attend the two-day national convention of the party in Delhi not to return to Karnataka and stay put in hotels in Gurugram and Noida,

as they feared Congress and JD(S) would poach them.

Party's state chief BS Yeddyurappa alleged that the ruling JD(S)-Congress coalition was trying to lure its MLAs in Karnataka. "It is not us, but they (the JDS-Congress) who have started horse trading. We will stay in Delhi for one or two days because Kumaraswamy is trying his level best to contact our MLAs and horse trading has started," Yeddyurappa told reporters in Delhi after meeting state BJP MLAs and MPs.

The BJP is "alert and careful" as the chief minister is trying to lure our MLAs using "power and money", he said.

"Kumaraswamy is trying to contact BJP MLAs and has offered a ministerial post to a Kalburgi MLA," he alleged and said the ruling combine is luring BJP state legislators despite having a majority.

Meanwhile, DKS will leave for Mumbai on Tuesday to ascertain the whereabouts of the Congress MLAs. Though he is on a trip to attend a conference on micro-irrigation in Aurangabad on January 16 and 17, he is going well in advance to Mumbai on a political trip to search for his party MLAs.

DKS minced no words earlier when he said “Horse trading is going on in the state. Three of our MLAs are in Mumbai in a hotel with some BJP MLAs and leaders. We are aware of what has transpired there and how much has been offered to them. BJP's ''Operation Lotus'' to topple the state's coalition government was for real,” he said.

Operation Lotus is a reference to the BJP allegedly luring several opposition MLAs to defect to ensure stability of its then-government headed by B S Yeddyurappa in Karnataka in 2008.

A miffed Shivakumar accused Kumaraswamy of being “lenient” towards the BJP. “Our chief minister is bit lenient towards the BJP. By ''lenient'', I mean he is not exposing the facts he knows. All the MLAs have conveyed to the chief minister about the ongoing conspiracies. They have also told Siddaramaiah about it. The chief minister is adopting a policy of wait and watch. If I was in his place, I would have exposed it within 24 hours,” Shivakumar said. The minister said former chief minister Siddaramaiah and Congress state president Dinesh Gundu Rao were aware of the development.

The saffron party dismissed the charges, saying the coalition partners were hiding their shortcomings and internal strife by making false accusations at the opposition. A sarcastic Yeddyurappa asked DKS to provide the address of the MLAs in Mumbai so that he could meet them.

Kumaraswamy too rubbished the claim of DKS saying his government was absolutely safe and not under threat from the saffron party. “All three of them (MLAs) are continuously in contact with me. They went to Mumbai after informing me. My government is not under threat,” he said.

That Congress MLAs are in touch with Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) had alarm bells ringing. Were they planning to join the JD(S)?

Meanwhile, the BJP central leadership has asked Yeddyurappa not to try his old trick of Operation Lotus, especially with the Lok Sabha elections round the corner. Party president Amit Shah has told the Karnataka leadership to at best stoke the downfall of the Kumaraswamy government by trying to widen the fissures between the Congress and the JD(S).