BENGALURU: As drama grips, the state once again, with multiple MLAs having resigned in the past two days and several ministers having resigned to accommodate disgruntled MLAs in the cabinet, there are enough indicators of the incumbent JD(S)-Congress government getting dissolved before it completes its term.

However, this won’t be the first in Karnataka. The dominance of national parties and the inability of regional parties to grow in strength has seen repeated coalition governments in Karnataka get dissolved mid-way.

The first such coalition in Karnataka was formed in 1983. The Janata Party (JNP) had emerged as the single largest party with 95 seats and got outside support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has 18 seats, Left parties, and 16 Independents. Ramakrishna Hegde became the chief minister in this coalition.

However, after JNP’s embarrassing performance in Karnataka in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections—just four seats—Hegde dissolved the government after one-year-and-354 days, saying that the party did not have the people’s mandate. In the subsequent state elections, JNP managed to win 139 seats to have a clear majority.

While this coalition was dissolved due to what experts term “Hegde’s morality”, the subsequent coalitions to fall before a full term were because of political drama. After 1983, the next post-poll coalition in Karnataka was between the Congress and JD(S) in 2004. This coalition, with 65 Congress and 58 JD(S) MLAs put Dharam Singh in the CM’s post.

Less than two years later, a defection in the JD(S), reportedly engineered by present chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (HDK), saw the government collapse. Soon after this, Kumaraswamy managed to bring the BS Yeddyurappa (BSY)-led BJP onboard to form a government.

HDK had promised BJP that the two parties would share the CM’s post for 20 months each. As per the agreement, HDK was to be CM for the first 20 months, followed by BSY. However, soon after Kumaraswamy completed his tenure in the office, the government collapsed as he didn’t want Yeddyurappa to be CM.

Now, the present government, in which HDK’s party has a fewer number of seats than Congress, is facing a situation that may lead to its collapse, reiterating the trend of coalitions not lasting a term in the state.

In fact, not a single coalition government—with alliances stitched after an election—in Karnataka has completed its term. Political analysts TOI spoke with say that the difference between states like Maharashtra and West Bengal , both of which have seen post-poll coalitions work, and Karnataka is the fact that there are strong regional parties in those states.

“There are other states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu too, but coalitions there have mostly been pre-poll alliances,” one of them said.

