Bengaluru: Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot as well as new ally JD(S) chief H.D. Kumaraswamy rushed to Eagleton Resorts on the outskirts of the city late on Wednesday, soon after Governor Vajubhai Vala formally invited BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa to take oath as Chief Minister on Thursday morning at 9.00 am, in a bid to ensure that their legislators were moved to safety and would not be the target of Operation Kamala - 2.0, and face IT raids and body warrants that would require their detention.
The Governor ended feverish speculation on Mr Yeddyurappa's second ascension to the post of chief minister of the state when he issued a formal letter after verbally inviting him to take oath late Wednesday.
Critically, Governor Vala has given the BJP government 15 days time to prove his majority, which made the JD(S) and Congress fast forward plans to move their legislators out of Karnataka and into Congress friendly states like Andhra and possibly Punjab to avoid a repeat of the poaching of legislators that marked Mr Yeddyurappa's first time as chief minister in 2008 when he was short of three MLAs.
The rush to move the MLAs out was necessitated by alerts received by the JD(S)-Congress that the BJP had made serious overtures to at least 12 legislators in the Congress-JD(S)-Independents camp. The BJP's strategy is to ensure some of the Congress and JD(S) MLAs it is wooing will skip the floor test and ensure the victory of BJP CM, B.S. Yeddyurappa who will take oath on Thursday.
At a later date, the legislators who have switched camps and had skipped the floor test, will face disqualification from the Assembly. To avoid this, the tactic is to resign from the membership of the assembly and face elections again.
High level sources have told this newspaper that the BJP is sure to prove its majority in the House within a fortnight. Party president Amit Shah has reportedly assured to-be-sworn Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa that he will be able to prove his majority within the scheduled time given to him by the Governor. "The party's tally should cross 116 minimum," said the source indicating that the BJP is sure of poaching more than 12 legislators from the Congress-JD(S)-Independents combine.
Soon after the news broke of BSY's lone swearing in on Thursday, the JD(S) MLAs checked out of the swank Shangri-La hotel in the city and were moved to an undisclosed destination with speculation running high that they could be moved to Hyderabad.
