How NDA MLAs reached Delhi

The BJP flew empty chartered planes and booked seats on trains to dodge surveillance, writes Shekhar Iyer.

The BJP flew empty chartered planes, ferried cars and booked seats on trains to dodge surveillance and prevent the poaching of five independent MLAs who make up the NDA's strength of 41 in Jharkhand.

HT Image

Cloaked in secrecy, the operation saw the MLAs move through three states before reaching Delhi to prove the NDA's point that Governor Syed Sibtey Razi had erred in swearing in JMM's Shibu Soren as chief minister without the requisite numbers.

The plan got under way after BJP president LK Advani gave the green signal to crisis managers Venkaiah Naidu and Pramod Mahajan, assisted by Ananth Kumar and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Even as the media got fed with stories that the MLAs had left Ranchi by road for neighbouring BJP-ruled states, two private aircraft — a 45-seater and an eight-seater — were hired to go to Ranchi to pick them up. However, the MLAs had taken the highway by then.

Meanwhile, Soren got wind of the plan and had the police ground one of the aircraft, thinking the MLAs were on it.

When Naidu, the brain behind the operation, contacted the MLAs to ask them to reach Jeshpur in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, they found themselves on a wrong route — towards Dhanbad. They wanted to go to Kolkata but were advised against going to Left-ruled West Bengal because the police had been alerted to detain them.