Resorting to Resorts — When Netas Were Bundled Away for 'Protection'

New Delhi: As the crisis in Gujarat Congress deepens, the party has decided to send 44 MLAs from the state to Bengaluru to stop them from being lured by the BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections.

Sources told CNN-News18 that 16 MLAs from central and south Gujarat were shifted to Neejanad Resort in Anand while another 11 from Saurashtra were made to stay at a farmhouse near Rajkot on Friday. Around half a dozen MLAs are expected to stay back in Ahmedabad.

All of this comes as six MLAs quit after state president Shankersinh Vaghela had a fallout with party leadership and resigned.

Here are some recent instances of parties resorting to moving their MLAs to resorts in order to stop claimed implosions within the party:

Nagaland

The state government announced civic body elections in December 2016 followed by the announcement of 33% reservation of seats for women. The announcement was protested by various tribal bodies including Naga Hoho, the apex organisation of all major tribes.

Nagaland Governor PB Acharya on February 2 declared the entire process of elections as null and void. The crisis pushed then Nagaland chief minister TR Zeliang out. Nagaland’s lone Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio and not Naga People’s Front (NPF) president Shurhozelie Liezietsu was looking like the likely replacement.

The BJP moved 40 MLAs, including independents, in the 60-member assembly out of Nagaland capital, Kohima, late on February 18 night to be lodged in a resort close to Assam’s Kaziranga National Park.

The race was finally won by Liezietsu, after political drama that dragged on for months.

Tamil Nadu

After the death of AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, the party entered crisis mode as the late chief minister’s confidante VK Sasikala took over the reins. Sasikala was a polarising figure among party members and her pushing out Jayalalithaa’s hand-picked successor O Panneerselvam (OPS), triggering a full blown factional war.

What followed was a political turmoil leaving the party in tatters. The AIADMK was split as one significant chunk of the party sided with OPS, instead of E Palaniswami (EPS) – Sasikala’s chosen candidate for CM.

Matters took a turn for the worse after Sasikala was convicted and jailed in a disproportionate assets case.

The ruling EPS – Sasikala faction, to arrest anymore defections, shepherded several AIADMK MLAs into Golden Bay Resort on East Coast Road in Chennai.

The EPS won a violence-marred trust vote a few days later.

Karnataka

The state Congress, a few days before the Rajya Sabha polls on June 10, moved all independent MLAs from the southern state to the JW Marriott hotel in Juhu, Mumbai.

The Congress ended up winning three seats, while the opposition BJP had one seat in the biennial elections. The move to frisk away the independent MLAs to a resort by the ruling party came under a lot of criticism.

Uttarakhand

After the first couple of months in 2016, the BJP tried to oust the incumbent Congress government in the state as nine MLAs from the party rebelled against the high command and the then chief minister Harish Rawat. The state was getting ready for the next assembly elections, scheduled in 2017.

Fearful of further poaching by the opposition, 19 MLAs of the ruling Congress were bundled into three helicopters at Sahastra Dhara helipad in Dehradun, and flown to a resort tucked deep in the dense forests of Jim Corbett National Park, in the Ramnagar area of the Himalayan foothills.

After President’s Rule was imposed in the state, Rawat won a trust vote and returned as Chief Minister on May 11. The rebel MLAs were subsequently disqualified from the state assembly under the anti-defection law as they joined the BJP.