Operation Kamala, Operation Lotus or sometimes Operation Black Lotus is a term coined in 2008, when India's former minister G. Janardhana Reddy in the state of Karnataka, used all possible tricks (persuade, bribe, punishment, divide) to secure support from legislators bypassing the anti-defection law, so as to take the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) past the majority number. Operation Lotus refers to "poaching" or "bribing" of MLAs and MPs of other parties by the BJP, mainly of their rival the Indian National Congress party (INC), often to form government in states where they do not have the majority.

Delhi 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that "BJP has spent Rs 6,500 crore [65 billion] rupees on buying 277 MLAs, they also tried to buy Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) MLAs in Delhi, and they offered 20 crores to each. They brought Rs 800 crores to buy MLAs of Delhi."  Kejriwal conducted a floor test in the Delhi Assembly to prove that his government continued to have the majority in the assembly and BJP's alleged Operation Lotus in Delhi had failed to poach AAP MLAs. CM successfully proved his majority in the legislature.

Goa

2019

2022 
On 14 September 2022, 8 Congress MLAs switched to BJP. Former Chief Minister of Goa Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo, along with other 6 Congress MLAs joined Bharatiya Janata Party, after meeting Dr. Pramod Sawant, Chief Minister of Goa from BJP.

Karnataka

2008
The BJP won 110 seats in the assembly elections in May 2008, falling three seats short of a simple majority. With the backing of six independents, Yeddyurappa took the oath of office as chief minister to establish the first BJP administration in south India. But to further secure the stability of the administration, the BJP lured seven MLAs—three from the Congress and four from the JD(S) in an operation purportedly funded by mining tycoon and former BJP minister Janardhan Reddy of Bellary—by offering them money and power. The BJP scored five victories in the by-elections, bringing its total in the 224-member assembly to 115. Operation Kamala eventually became the name of the entire exercise.

The MLAs who switched parties during the Operation Kamala and resigned are J. Narasimha Swamy, Anand Asnotikar, Jaggesh, Balachandra Jarkiholi, K. Shivanagouda Naik. Umesh Katti and D. C. Gourishankar.

2019 

Ramesh Jarkiholi organized 14 other Congress MLAs to resign their posts. Ramesh Jarkiholi was one of the 15 MLAs from Congress and 2 from JD(S) who resigned in July 2019, bringing down the HDK Congress-JD(S) coalition and allowing B.S. Yeddyurappa (BSY) to return to power. After Supreme Court ruling held up their disqualification but allowed them to run, Jarkiholi joined BJP along with all other rebels inducted by Yeddyurappa and other important persons.

Investigations
On 31 March 2021, the bench of Justice D'Cunha refused to quash the FIR against the sitting Chief Minister of Karnataka B. S. Yediyurappa in a case nicknamed Operation Kamala case. At the time of the alleged incident, Yediyurappa was the leader of opposition.

Reactions
 In an interview with Deccan Herald in March 2019, B. S. Yediyurappa said "Operation Kamala was not wrong and I don't regret it. It is part of democracy."
Lehar Singh Siroya claimed that the BJP cadre in the State was “by and large against the Operation Kamala” as that would not help the party in the long term.
H. D. Kumaraswamy alleged that the BJP used Operation Kamala to affect the defections of MLAs from his government, causing it to fall.

Madhya Pradesh

The crisis started when long loyalist Congress politician Jyotiraditya Scindia suddenly went to Delhi and resigned from Congress and joined BJP. This led to many supporters of him resigning from Congress as well.
Hardeep Singh Dang resigned from the assembly membership and consequently from Indian National Congress, citing in a letter, 'ignorance from his party' and then joined BJP on March 21, 2020, along with 21 others. Ultimately, this exodus led to the fall of the Kamal Nath government.

See also
 State governments of India
 Law of India
 List of scandals in India
 Disqualification of convicted representatives in India
 2019 Maharashtra political crisis 
 2022 Maharashtra political crisis 
 2019 Karnataka Political Crisis
 Political corruption

References

Further reading

External links
 Outline of the Indian Government

 

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