Resort politics and Karnataka: Cool place for hot power games

BENGALURU: With rebel Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, loyal to former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, taking refuge at a resort in Bengaluru to pull down the Kamal Nath government there, the focus is back on Karnataka as the hotbed of resort politics.

But taking ‘asylum’ in plush resorts in Karnataka to pull down governments is not a nascent political strategy. Resorts in Karnataka, especially in and around Bengaluru, have been hot favourites for this kind of politics.

During defections, fear hangs over political parties about the possibilities of weak-minded MLAs changing their minds.

The leader -- the one in charge of the entire “operation” -- takes MLAs to an “unreachable’’ place to keep the flock together and away from their desperately prying parties. And what is a better place than a resort to ensure them a safe refuge?

Resort politics is nothing but an investment in one’s political career.

“The MLAs who hop from one party to another are like jokers in card games. Wherever they go, the party pocketing them benefits,” says a political leader.

Each time rebel legislators seeking to defect from one party to another are herded to resorts, big amounts of money are ‘allegedly’ spent on them. Their lodging and boarding in five or seven-star hotels or resorts cost crores of rupees as their stay drags on for days and weeks.

But there is a Machiavellian twist to it -- ends justify the means -- and the huge amounts spent on this are politically justified if ends are met.

A senior Congress leader explains why the drama of ‘resort politics’ is chosen to be staged in Bengaluru repeatedly: “The weather in Bengaluru and Karnataka is good which everyone loves to experience.”

Political scientist Prof Sandeep Shashtri, who is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Jain University and Director of its Centre for Research in Social Sciences and Education (CRSSE), says Karnataka has been a safe haven for resort politics for national parties.

“Whenever there is a Congress government here, MLAs from other states loyal to the party come here. When there is a BJP rule, MLAs favouring the saffron party are brought here. In Karnataka, parties and leaders are capable of managing this. Since 2008, Karnataka has witnessed many resorts hopping cases and they have become successful too. Leaders in the state are successful in hosting and that is probably why leaders of others states look to Karnataka for resort politics. Whenever they need MLAs, resort politics becomes the first choice,” he says.

Decades-old culture

In Karnataka, resort politics is 36 years old. It started in 1984 when actor-turned-politician and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N T Rama Rao had gone to America for heart surgery. By the time he returned, Governor Ramlal who was appointed by the Indira Gandhi government had made N Bhaskar Rao the chief minister of that state.

On Rao’s return, the governor asked him to prove his majority. As a precaution, Rao brought all the Telugu Desam Party MLAs, including N Chandrababu Naidu to Karnataka.

The then Karnataka chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde wholeheartedly supported Rao and his team who stayed close to a month in Dasaprakash Paradise in Bengaluru.

In 2002, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh brought his MLAs to Karnataka. “When he was asked to prove majority, 71 MLAs of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with a few independents came to Karnataka. D K Shivakumar and Roshan Baig, who were ministers in SM Krishna’s cabinet played hosts.

The Maharashtra MLAs were taken to tourist places in and around Mysuru. The team also stayed in Golden Palm Resort near Nelamangala. In 2017, Shivakumar, along with his brother and Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh, played hosts to Gujarat’s Congress MLAs ahead of Rajya Sabha elections. Congress was in power in Karnataka then.

Elected representatives of Karnataka themselves started taking refuge in resorts since 2004. When none of the parties got a simple majority with BJP winning 90 seats, Congress 65 and the JD(S) 58 in the 224-member assembly, all JD(S) lawmakers were taken to a resort. This took place when leaders of Congress and JDS were in talks to form a coalition.

In 2006, the same JDS withdrew its support to the coalition government and decided to go with the BJP. To safeguard them from Congress, BJP and JDS took their MLAs to two different places.

Two years later, when BS Yediyurappa formed the government in the state, it fell short of three seats.

It was when mining baron Janaradhana Reddy took independents and a few Congress MLAs to Hyderabad.

In the last 16 years, three governments toppled because of the dubious practise of resort politics. Karnataka’s politicians have become masters of it over the years.

Even today, political parties in many other states which do not have the numbers look to their party colleagues or ‘allies’ in Karnataka, which has emerged as a haven for resort politics.

JDS MLA A T Ramaswamy says, “This kind of practice will lead to more corrupt practices. Where do they get money from to fund resort politics? White money is definitely not possible. Officials pay kickbacks to politicians who spend the money on this... The government should control the mafia and not the other way round.”