Karnataka proved a safe 'anti-poaching camp' for parties of all hues

The ‘resort politics’ in Maharashtra has grabbed headlines over the past week as MLAs of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government remain holed up in Guwahati.

But Karnataka is no stranger to ‘resort politics’ as its tryst with such politics began way back in 1984, when the N T Rama Rao-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government was battling a coup attempt.

Ramakrishna Hegde, who was the CM of Karnataka then, had backed Rao and helped him secure 160 TDP MLAs in Mysuru till the trust vote.

In 2002, then Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh sought assistance from his then Karnataka counterpart S M Krishna, prompting Karnataka Congress leaders to play host to 71 Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislators.

Karnataka itself was witness to resort politics in 2006, 2017 and more recently, in 2019.

Keeping the flock together became key for Rama Rao, popularly referred to as NTR, in 1984, while heading the first non-Congress government of Andhra Pradesh. NTR, who had travelled to US for a surgery, was shocked to find that he was replaced by N Bhaskar Rao as CM by the governor.

Sheltered by Hegde

With the governor asking him to prove his majority, NTR huddled all TDP MLAs and came with them to Karnataka. Senior Congress legislator R V Deshpande recalled that these MLAs were sheltered by Hegde.

“They stayed in a hotel in Mysuru,” Deshpande said.

This is considered the first such incident in independent India, where MLAs were secured at a safe place to prevent horse-trading. Thanks to Hegde’s help, NTR was able to prove his majority and was CM again. In 2002, it was the turn of Krishna to aid his Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh to save his government.

Around a 100 legislators from the Congress and NCP were flown to Bengaluru amid attempts by BJP to draw away the MLAs from the coalition government. Current KPCC president D K Shivakumar, who was an MLA then, was handed the responsibility to host the MLAs. Shivakumar kept them at the Golden Palms Spa and Resort to stop them from jumping ship.

Though Deshmukh succeeded in securing the MLAs and the government, he had to step down in January 2003 due to factionalism within the government ranks.

Shivakumar was given a similar responsibility by the Congress high command in 2017 to host 41 MLAs from Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled in the state.

When the MLAs were kept at Eagleton resort near Bidadi, the Income Tax department officials raided the properties of Shivakumar, leading to a major political slugfest.

‘Resort politics’

Another memorable instance of ‘resort politics,’ this time pertaining to the politics of the state, was in 2006.

The Congress-JD(S) coalition under Dharam Singh was toppled as JD(S)’ H D Kumaraswamy walked out of the coalition with 42 legislators.

They were driven to a resort in a bus, with B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan in the driver’s seat. The most recent instance was in 2019, when 17 legislators from the Congress-JD(S) coalition headed by Kumaraswamy flew to Mumbai and withdrew support from the government, leading to a political drama that lasted weeks.