Bangalore : Operation Lotus – attempt to dislodge JD (S)- Congress government in Karnataka appears to received a major setback after the rebel Congress leaders returned on Wednesday, as did lone JD (S) MLA, amid a mounting embarrassment to BJP leader and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa.

Coinciding with the return of the missing MLAs, after Congress threatened them with disqualification, they all trooped back and tried to make light of their absence. All of them maintained that they had some issues with Congress leadership and they were nothing serious.

The disqualification threat seems to have worked and caused the failure of Operation Lotus apparently unleashed by the state BJP unit ahead of general elections.

What the operation Lotus has done is to bring together the coalition partners more close than they were before making the Kumaraswamy government more stable. More important, the two parties will be fighting the general elections together, which is ominous for the BJP which won 17 of the 28 seats in last elections in 2014 when there was a Modi wave.

But this time around, there is no perceptible wave in the country and in Karnataka, and more over the two coalition partners are expected to do well across the state. Barring the few pockets where the BJP is strong. But the BJP. An not hope to repeat its previous performance and help the party overcome its losses in UP and other Hindi belt states.

Since the major embarrassment to Yeddyurappa over the taped conversations in which he is purported to be promising money and ministerial posts to MLAs and also his comments on judiciary have caused more harm to the party just ahead of elections.

This has only given mor ammunition to the opposition grouping, which is coming closer than ever before to “save democracy” in the country.