Karnataka BJP leader to release tell-all book on 'Operation Lotus' soon

In the book, AH Vishwanath will reveal the details behind the toppling of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government.
AH Vishwanath and HD Devegowda
AH Vishwanath and HD Devegowda
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Karnataka BJP leader AH Vishwanath on Friday announced that he will soon release his book, titled Bombay Days. This tell-all book will shed light on how BJP carried out ‘Operation Lotus’ to come to power in 2019 elections, he said to the press.  The leader is one among the dozen others who have implicitly expressed their discontentment over the state cabinet expansion that took place on January 13.

‘Operation Kamal’ or ‘Operation Lotus’ refers to the strategy allegedly chalked out by the BJP to come into power, in states where it did not have enough seats to form a government on its own. Vishwanath told the press that the book would carry a detailed account of how Yediyurappa executed Operation Lotus with 17 legislators, all of whom defected from their respective parties.

The strategy was allegedly first tested in Karnataka after the 2008 State Assembly election. The BJP formed its government by seeking help from independent MLAs and increased their number to 115, three short of the majority. In the name of ensuring 'stability', the party actively influenced and made at least 18 MLAs from opposition parties to defect. They then went for by-polls and eventually made the defected leaders ministers.

In 2019 too, the BJP adopted a similar strategy and sought 17 MLAs from Congress and JD(S) parties to defect and form the government.

Vishwanath is one of the 17 defectors who flew to Mumbai and stayed in a luxury hotel for nearly two weeks, where ‘Operation Lotus’ was designed and executed. He claims to have an inside view of what went into the plan to topple the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka. Vishwanath had announced the release Bombay Days in 2020.

He told reporters, “I am in the process of finalising the last two chapters and will release it after it is done. The book is centred around the fall and rise of two different regimes.” He coined the name ‘Bombay Team’-- referring to all 17 MLAs who had flown to Mumbai to orchestrate the fall of the coalition government.

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