How resort politics is now becoming a trend in India

BENGALURU, INDIA - JULY 29: Police frisking cars going inside the Golf Village Eagleton resort as Congress MLAs from Gujarat are staying here at Bidadi on July 29, 2017 in Bengaluru, India. They are here allegedly after the party MLAs started defecting to BJP. Congress party accused the BJP of poaching their legislators. The Congress has flown down its MLAs to Bengaluru in an attempt to stop BJP from 'luring them'. (Photo by Arijit Sen/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

When 16 of the 19 MLAs supporting TTV Dinakaran were moved to resorts in Puducherry on Tuesday to prevent them from defecting, they laid credence to a growing trend of party leaders carting their MLAs off in the face of a floor test.

The move came after the MLAs led by Dinakaran met Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao to convey that they are withdrawing support given to the Edappadi Palaniswami government.

According to media reports, 104 of the 134 elected AIADMK MLAs are loyal to CM Palaniswami, while 10 others are loyal to deputy chief minister-elect O Panneerselvam. The rest have aligned themselves with TTV Dinakaran.

Therefore, if MK Stalin's demand for a floor test is met, AIADMK would fall short of the 117 MLAs needed to prove majority in the Assembly.

Being faced with a situation that could result in the party losing power and being forced to contest a by-election, AIADMK leaders could have used all the means at their disposal to poach some of the rebellious MLAs.

To ensure that he does not lose any of his loyal MLAs to poaching by the party's top brass, Dinakaran moved most of them to the Aruna Inn, Le Pondy and Windflower Resort hotels in Puducherry.

This trend of moving MLAs to keep them from being poached by others has never been more pronounced than it is at the moment, with the AIADMK already having done it twice so far this year and the Congress having done it earlier this month to make sure its candidate Ahmed Patel got re-elected to the Rajya Sabha.

This brand of politics, being dubbed "resort politics" by the media and on social networking platforms, has existed in India for quite some time. The first instance of such a move was way back in 1983, when Karnataka CM Ramakrishna Hegde decided to "protect" his MLAs from "Congress Vultures".

Here is a look at some of the instances where resort politics was used by party leaders to avoid a defection.

October 1983: Janata Party 'protects' MLAs in Karnataka

When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to topple the Ramakrishna Hegde-led Janata Party government in Karnataka, chief minister Hegde decided to protect them from what he called the "Congress vultures."

August 1984: NT Rama Rao moves TDP MLAs

When chief minister NT Rama Rao-led Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) government was hit by an internal revolt led by his own aide Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, the actor-turned-politician sent all their MLAs to Bangalore, before finally moving them to Delhi.

Rama Rao's government however collapsed and but he returned to power within two months.

September 1995: N Chandrababu Naidu defects with MLAs

In 1995, NT Rama Rao faced an internal revolt yet again. This time, it was from his son-in-law and future chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu shifted his 'loyal' MLAs to the Viceroy Hotel in Hyderabad and succeeded in ousting Rama Rao, who never returned to power after that.

June 2002: Vilasrao Deshmukh sends MLAs to Mysore

Amidst a political crisis in the state, Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh moved 71 MLAs from Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a few independents to Mysore.

While they were allowed to visit tourist spots, dozens of party workers were also sent to keep a watch on them.

February 2017: Sasikala holds 'loyal' MLAs

Days after O Panneerselvam resigned as the chief minister, accusing J Jayalalithaa's close aide VK Sasikala of forcing him to resign, the latter claimed stake to form the government.

Fearing defection to the rebel Panneerselvam-led faction, Sasikala moved 'loyal' MLAs to the Golden Bay Resort near Chennai.

However, before she could take over as the chief minister, a Supreme Court verdict sent her packing to jail in relation to the disproportionate assets case.

Still in control, Sasikala selected Edappadi Palaniswami to become the chief minister.

Moving the MLAs to the resort proved to be a successful strategy as Palaniswami was able to win the floor test after the speaker evicted DMK's 88 MLAs from the House.

August 2017: Congress saves Ahmed Patel

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's close aide Ahmed Patel was seeking re-election to the Upper House of the Parliament. However, the race became tight after a number of Congress MLAs defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Congress accused the BJP of indulging in horse trading. Fearing more defections, the party flew 44 of their MLAs to the Eagleton golf resort in Bangalore.

Ahmed Patel narrowly got re-elected after two Congress MLAs who flashed their ballot papers were disqualified by the Election Commission.