The Karnataka mystery is over, BJP has won it

After several days of political drama, the JD(S)-Congress coalition government which had come to power last year has finally fallen. Kumaraswamy lost the trust vote 105-99 in favor of the BJP. Ever since, the reports of Congress and JD(S) MLAs tendering their resignations surfaced, it had become clear that the Karnataka government was not going to survive for very long. The coalition government had fallen into a political crisis after reports of 14 MLAs tendering their resignations had come up. It had become clear that once these resignations were accepted, the coalition government would lose its majority.

BJP has reacted to the fall of JD(S)-Congress government calling it the victory of the people of the state and thus the end of a corrupt and unholy alliance. The BJP Karnataka unit tweeted, “It’s the victory of people of Karnataka. It’s the end of an era of corrupt & unholy alliance. We promise a stable & able governance to the people of Karnataka. Together we will make Karnataka prosperous again”.

Before the political crisis had hit the coalition government, the Congress-JD(S) alliance boasted of 118 MLAs {78(Congress)+ 37(JDS) + 1(BSP) +1(IND) + 1(nominated)} in the assembly where the total number is 225, including the speaker and a nominated member from the Anglo-Indian community. The resignation of 14 MLAs was expected to bring down the total number in the assembly at 210, excluding the Speaker. As such, the resignation was also expected to bring down the majority mark. The total number of MLAs in the assembly would be 210 (excluding the speaker) after the resignation of the 14 MLAs. This was also expected to effectively change the majority mark to 106. The resignation of 14 MLAs effectively made it impossible for the Kumaraswamy government to continue in the face of an inevitable trust vote. It had already become a question of how long the coalition could manage to survive, its end had become certain. The floor test has produced results on expected lines. BSP and independent MLAs abstained from voting.

The floor test got delayed several times but it seems that the delay has not made much difference to the expected result. As such this is a telling blow for the Congress which is already fighting hard to survive in India’s political landscape. It seems that the Congress is unable to keep its house in order and it is on the brink of an existential crisis. There is no potent leadership at any level and the local leadership of the Congress seems uninspired. It is going to be an uphill task for the Congress to make a comeback from here. This is also going to be a shot in the arm for the BJP which has already left Congress far behind when it comes to pan-India presence and popularity.