BJP may revive ‘Operation Kamala’ but won’t succeed, says Siddaramaiah

Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, who chairs the coordination committee of the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition, said the BJP was likely to revive ‘Operation Kamala’ to topple the state government after the ongoing general election but would not succeed. He said this in an interview on Monday.

Confidence in the coalition

Siddaramaiah, the Congress Legislature Party leader, said there was no threat to the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government, which he described as very stable and running smoothly. He said ‘Operation Kamala 2.0’ would fail because the BJP was unlikely to return to power at the Centre. “They may attempt Operation Kamala again and I don’t figure they will succeed,” he said. He added that it was the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who were claiming the government was unstable.

His reading of the national contest

Siddaramaiah argued that the BJP would not win enough seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where it had won 102 of the 120 seats in 2014, and said it might not get even 50 percent of that tally this time. He also questioned whether the party could again win all 26 seats in Gujarat, and asked where the Modi wave was.

Background

‘Operation Kamala’ (Operation Lotus) refers to the BJP’s successful effort in 2008 to secure defections of opposition legislators to stabilise the BS Yeddyurappa government. The BJP tried to engineer defections soon after the May 2018 Assembly election, in which it emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats but fell short of a majority.

The coalition has 117 MLAs against the BJP’s 104. The BJP would need at least 13 coalition legislators to resign to bring down the strength of the House. Defecting MLAs cannot join the BJP straight away, as they would be disqualified under the anti-defection law. Karnataka votes in the second and third phases, on April 18 and 23.

What happened next

The H. D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government, formed on 23 May 2018 with Congress support, fell in July 2019, and B. S. Yeddyurappa returned as Chief Minister. See also: Janata Dal (Secular)

Originally published on 16 April 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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