Losing Face

With Congress in Gujarat on the verge of an implosion, Ahmed Patel faces the embarrassing prospect of not securing his re-entry to Rajya Sabha 

- Nandini Oza And Prathima Nandakumar

Late in the night of July 28, as northern Gujarat continued to battle the worst flood in years, the opposition Congress took 41 of its legislators to the Ahmedabad airport. They were put on a plane to Bengaluru, where they were asked to stay put in a three-star resort called Eagleton—The Golf Village, until further notice.

In the preceding days, six Congress legislators had quit the party, with three of them joining the ruling BJP. At least three of the six legislators who resigned were close to Shankersinh Vaghela, the tallest leader of the Congress in Gujarat. Vaghela himself had announced, on July 21, that he was leaving the Congress, but he chose to remain as legislator.

With its strength in the 182 member assembly reduced to 51, the Congress was in deep crisis by the time it gathered its MLAs in Ahmedabad. Party leaders said the 41 legislators were whisked off to Bengaluru to thwart “Operation Lotus”, which, they alleged, was the BJP’s grand plan to poach MLAs from rival parties before the Rajya Sabha election on August 8.

For two days after they landed in Bengaluru, the legislators refused to take calls or talk to the media. On July 30, Shaktisinh Gohil, who represents Abdasa in the Gujarat assembly, and D.K. Shivakumar, Karnataka energy minister, came to meet them. Two more MLAs flew in later from Ahmedabad. Hours later, the legislators, all 44 of them, walked out of the resort hand in hand, as if to quell rumours that they were being held hostage by their own party. Wearing badges that had pictures of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi, they formed a human chain on the lawns of a neighbouring resort. “Hum nek hai, aur hum ek hai [We are honest and we are one],” they declared in chorus.