The not a new phenomenon of ‘resort politics’ in the state of Karnataka

BENGALURU: On Friday the Congress party had followed a suit, as it has been accusing the opposition BJP of keeping its MLAs in “illegal confinement” at a five-star hotel in Gurgaon, Haryana.

The legislators, who had arrived to attend the Congress legislature party meeting, were taken aback when they were being asked to board two buses at the secretariat. The move was being precipitated by the fear that its legislators could be poached by the saffron party.

While the MLAs who representing the assembly constituencies in Bengaluru and the women members who are expected to join their colleagues later on Saturday, the others were taken to Eagleton, The Golf resort which is located in Bidadi. “The resort has only 38 rooms at the moment as they have other guests,” a source said. “We need 75 rooms.”

The move is certainly not a new phenomenon. Karnataka has been marked as the hub of ‘resort politics’ since the late 80s. Any occasion when elected representatives have to vote together, MLAs have been herded into resorts and brought to vote on the D-day.

In the year 2017, the state of Karnataka had made national headlines when the Congress leaders who were being led by DK Shivakumar had successfully prevented the attempts of the BJP to poach the Congress MLAs from Gujarat during the Rajya Sabha elections. The Congress had kept 44 MLAs from Gujarat at the Bidadi resort for almost a week.

After the 2018 assembly polls marked a cracked verdict, the resorts were again in demand. Ahead of the floor test by Yeddyurappa, Congress had packed off all 79 MLAs to a resort for nearly a week before the formation of the government with JD(S).