The worsening health of 112-year-old seer Shivakumara Swamy of the Siddaganga mutt near Bengaluru seems to have provided the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with an alibi to abort its ‘Operation Kamala’ and allow its 104 MLAs to return home. 

The seer was recently operated upon for a complication but his health started deteriorating soon after, giving an excuse to BS Yeddyurappa to head home on Wednesday night. 
According to insiders, the leaders kept assuring the captive MLAs till Wednesday morning that everything was proceeding according to plan and the HD Kumaraswamy government would collapse by the weekend. Some MLAs wanted to escape from Delhi’s cold and head home but the leaders prevented them by saying a “sweet” news was on its way. However, by afternoon it was clear to most BJP MLAs and leaders that ‘Operation Kamala’ was not showing the expected results and they started looking for a way out.