Karnataka BJP: As fortunes sag, leadership banks on Yediyurappa for rescue

The crushing defeat in the recent state Assembly election has brought its own set of fresh problems for the Karnataka BJP. The state BJP looks like a divided house now. Even after a month, the party is struggling to name the Leader of Opposition in the legislative assembly.

Significantly, there are no takers for the post of the party’s state president, which will be vacated by Nalin Kumar Kateel shortly. All these developments are being viewed as growing fissures within the state BJP.

At this critical juncture of the state unit, the party high command has fallen back on the political acumen and seniority of former chief minister and veteran leader B S Yediyurappa to lift the sagging image of BJP.

High command banks on Yediyurappa

A senior BJP leader told The Federal, “It is inevitable for the high command to ask Yediyurappa to set the house in order. The party’s top brass is at it. Swallowing their pride, top leaders are appealing to Yediyurappa to intervene and do course correction.”

“It is a known fact that Yediyurappa is still BJP’s best in the coming Lok Sabha polls,” he confessed, giving the example of Yediyurappa’s high-pitched protest today (July 4) outside the state Assembly, over the Congress government’s failure to implement their five poll guarantees in letter and spirit among other things.

The senior BJP leader also pointed that the party top brass summoning the veteran political warhorse to Delhi to discuss the issue of state leadership, amid delay in electing the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the legislative Assembly, is an indication of Yediyurappa’s present clout with national leaders.

Also read: Karnataka : BJP to launch protests against Cong govt ‘failure’ to fulfill poll guarantees

BJP paid for sidelining BSY

BJP’s top brass paid a heavy price for sidelining Yediyurappa by asking him to vacate the CM’s post, citing his age factor. But the party high command realised its mistake only during the run-up to the Assembly polls. The party high command pulled a sulking Yediyurappa out of a nearly two-year hiatus to lead its election campaign alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The former CM was also taken into the Parliamentary Board – the highest decision-making body, in view of the Assembly polls.

Sources in BJP’s poll strategy wing rationalised that the party’s move of falling back on Yediyurappa by making him the key poll mascot along with Modi pointed at Yediyurappa’s relevance in state politics. He is a mass leader who has a strong connect with the people, particularly with the politically influential Lingayat community, that no other party leader commands in the state.

But, not listening to him in the process of selection of candidature proved costly for the party, which lost at least 10 seats in central Karnataka, where the powerful Lingayat community calls the shots. The Lingayat community to which Yediyurappa belongs to did not take the humiliation meted out to its leader lying down.

A tall leader in Karnataka

The community showed what Yediyurappa means to them, pointed out a BJP functionary.

Former minister and Yediyurappa’s loyalist, M P Renukacharya and his other staunch supporters are visibly upset with the alleged humiliation meted out to their ‘tall leader’.

“He was removed from the CM’s post twice by conspiring against him. This resulted in resentment among the Lingayat community,” said Renukacharya, who openly declared that he will not keep quiet if Yediyurappa is humiliated again. He even dared the party high command to issue a show cause notice to him “for speaking truth and reasons for party’s dismal performance in the recent polls”.

But, Yediyurappa refused to acknowledge that he has been sidelined in the BJP and humiliated as being claimed by his loyalists. In his farewell speech in the Assembly, the former CM rubbished talks of him being sidelined in the party. He had clarified, “The party has given everything to me and no one can finish me politically”.

With hardly 10 months left for the Lok Sabha elections, it has become inevitable for the party to fall back on Yediyurappa, as Karnataka is a crucial state for the BJP, which got 25 of the 28 seats in the 2019 polls, said party sources.

Also read: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah calls BJP ‘most indisciplined party’

Sources said, “The party high command did not invite top leaders including Prahlad Joshi, B L Santosh, C T Ravi, former CM Basavaraj Bommai and others to discuss the issue of the leadership in the Assembly. But the party inviting Yediyurappa indicates the political clout he has with PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah.”

Political analysts observed that with Yediyurappa back in action, it will surely work as a game changer for the  BJP. It is being speculated that his loyalist and Union minister of state for agriculture Shobha Karandlaje will become the party’s state president, representing the Vokkaliga community, if a leader from the Lingayat community takes over as the LoP in the Assembly.