Return of 'resort politics' signalled impending political

The 'resort politics' of huddling legislators in a far away location, which ususally precedes a political storm, has made a comeback with the arrival of rebel Congress MLAs here from Madhya Pradesh and it heralded the impending political crisis there.

As 21 legislators belonging to the Jyotiraditya Scindia camp resigned on Tuesday putting the Chief Minister Kamal Nath-led government in a spot, the arrival of eight legislators here on March 4 was the first sign that all was not well.

Amid allegations of poaching by BJP, they had landed in the city on Wednesday last and were put up in an undisclosed location.

According to sources, eight legislators including one independent were camping in the city for a week now. Out of them two- one Congress and an independent- had gone back.

"Later, the lawmakers here were joined by 13 legislators, who landed in the city by a chartered flight yesterday. So 19 are here," the sources said.

All MLAs are said to be loyal to expelled party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.

These MLAs on Tuesday sent their resignation letters via e-mail to Raj Bhavan in Bhopal from Bengaluru.

All legislators are biding their time in the lush green environs of a sprawling resort here to make their next move.

Soothed by salubrious climate, the resort near the airport appears to be a perfect setting for the lesgislators to draw their next course of action.

The MLAs are out of bounds for the media.

Herding legislators to a resort is nevertheless a new phenomenon as such episodes had played out in the past as well in Karnataka and elsewhere.

Fearing possible poaching of MLAs by BJP, the Congress state unit here had moved its legislators to a resort in January 2019 which eventually set the stage for a rebellion last year.

In July 2019, the Congress and JD(S) MLAs from Karnataka were huddled in resorts at Mumbai and Goa that came to be known as 'Operation Lotus' which saw the coalition government led by former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy being ousted.

Shaken with the coup of sorts, the Congress and the JD(S) went on the back foot and camped their remaining MLAs in a city based resort.

Prior to it, the Gujarat Congress had huddled its MLAs in a resort at Bidadi in Ramanagar district ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections.