I appreciate the BJP supporters of Karnataka sacrificing their state for the larger good of the nation.
I don't know why people are missing the obvious fact: it's not just the Congress and the JDS that will be hurt if the BJP successfully horsetrades. It is party discipline among all parties, and in that the BJP has the most to lose.
The MLAs who cross over gain in monetary terms, of course. In theory, those who voted for them should get pissed off and not vote them back to power. But in reality, they are also gainers.
Because you know your MLA is corrupt. That's a given. Given that, you are better off if your MLA is inside government than outside of it.
But what if you are a sincere, dedicated BJP MLA? In return for sticking to party discipline, you get to see some random legislators showered with 100s of crores. How long will their party discipline hold out?
There's a theorem called the median voter theorem. In democracy, you win by appealing, not to your core voter who will vote for you anyway or your opposition's core voter, who will never vote for you, but to the fickleminded median voter.
But if you appeal too much to the median voter, your core voter soon starts becoming median. This is exactly what happens when you indulge in horse trading.
Lots of discussion among BJP supporters about apat dharma -whether this is such an exceptional situation that the normal rules of conduct do not apply.
Before you get into all that, consider this: it may be ok for me to cheat on my wife if she is cheating on me. It is not ok for me to cheat on my wife because my enemy is cheating on his.
