Night before Centre’s August 5 move, BJP reached out to Congress chief whip in RS; he quit next morning

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Lost within the din of the government’s advance August 5, 2019, stripping J&K of its special status under Article 370, splitting and downgrading it to 2 Union Territories, were the resignations of three members of Rajya Sabha.

It was not known then that the resignations of Bhubaneswar Kalita of Congress and SP’s Surendra Singh Nagar and Sanjay Seth were a part of carefully orchestrated moves by the BJP to make sure smooth passage of its legislative plan for the day.

It now emerges that these three members of Rajya Sabha were approached by the ruling party and establishment within the final hours resulting in the August 5 announcement.

A top government functionary, in an unmarked vehicle driven by an Assam politician, visited Kalita’s New Delhi house the night before the announcement on J&K to influence him to dump the Congress and cross over to the BJP.

Such was the secrecy and urgency, sources said, that even Kalita seemed surprised. As Plan B, ruling establishment members had also involved Kalita’s relatives et al. on the brink of him. that they had been delivered to New Delhi from Assam to convince him — this feature was never exercised because Kalita agreed.

Kalita and therefore the SP members were key to BJP’s Rajya Sabha arithmetic. A Constitutional amendment Bill requires a special majority for passage in each of the 2 Houses of Parliament – a majority of the entire membership of the House and by a majority of not but two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting.

As Chief Whip of the Congress, Kalita would are required to issue a whip to Congress members for voting on the matter announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Moreover, Kalita and his party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had given notice under Rule 267 to the Rajya Sabha Chairman for a discussion on things in Jammu & Kashmir.

To ensure numbers, the ruling establishment had reached bent some within the Opposition. But Congress members, sources said, made it clear that they might do little if Kalita were to issue a whip — violation of the whip would have cost them their membership.

Soon after the House assembled for the day on August 5, the Chairman announced Kalita’s resignation. It had been received from Kalita within the morning, and was scrutinised after enquiring from him and verifying his handwriting. The Congress was stunned.

Asked why he chose August 5, 2019, to resign, Kalita told The Indian Express: “Because that issue… I also supported it for an extended time. That we should always be one nation, with one flag and one Constitution. Nobody could roll in the hay and when this government brought that Bill for abrogation of Article 370, i assumed I should support the Bill. I discussed with a number of my colleagues within the party (Congress) and that i told them that it had been a crucial issue and therefore the Congress should discuss it within the Parliamentary party or within the Working Committee and make a choice to support the Bill. But nothing of that kind happened… Neither the CWC nor the Parliamentary party discussed the difficulty till the Bill was passed.”

“Finally, i assumed if I support the Bill on the ground of the House… Being a member and Chief Whip of the party will go against my principles. So I resigned from Rajya Sabha… And from outside, I supported the Bill,” he said.

Asked whether he knew the Bill was coming, Kalita said: “It was listed and that we had discussed amongst ourselves. I discussed it with my colleagues.”

He denied that any BJP leader had met him the previous night and asked him to resign. “Nobody from BJP came to my house. I made my very own decision. Of course, after my decision… Then some people (BJP leaders) came… But that was after I resigned.”

The ruling party carried the day with an easy majority in favour of the move, meeting the standards for a Constitutional amendment. There was no got to exercise leverage from the resignation of Kalita.

The BJP rewarded Kalita with a Rajya Sabha membership months later when he was made the party candidate in March 2020.

SP sources said its two Rajya Sabha MPs, whose resignations were announced an equivalent day as Kalita, informed party chief Akhilesh Yadav and party leader in Rajya Sabha, Ram Gopal Yadav, about “pressure” from a Union minister to go away the SP, days before the August 5 move.