In 2008, Bharatiya Janata Party, for the first time expanded its footprint in the southern part of India and successfully formed the government under the leadership of B S Yeddyurappa (BSY). BSY, who painstakingly built the party from scratch, is an old party veteran almost as revered as L.K. Advani. He was an active part of the party right from the days of Jana Sangh.
People of Karnataka started to get the taste of what the BJP ruled state actually meant. Falling on the close footsteps of the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, BSY vowed to give a great people friendly and a progressive government. The Bhagyalaksmi scheme of distributing cycles to rural girls of BPL families, the ban on illegal mining, the Krishi Budget, which was the first of its kind in the country (a separate Agriculture budget for addressing the concerns of the farmers) and the Industry Summits were the main highlights of the BSY government.
After a year of government formation, in the run up to the 2009 General Elections, riding high on the immense popularity, BSY the another Modi in making, vowed to send as many MPs as possible so that L.K. Advani could be the next PM of the country. As a result- Karnataka sent 19 BJP MPs out of 28 total seats. But, unfortunately BJP could not form the government at the center. This proved the adage that – “The party ruling at the State will never form the government at the Centre”.
The story took an ugly turn with a ban on illegal mining and zero co-operation from BS Yeddyurappa to Reddy’s illegal activities in Bellary. The powerful Bellary Reddy’s started lobbying against Yeddyurappa by resorting to “Resort Politics” – house arresting their own party MLAs and alluring them with money. Reddy’s wielded so much influence that their self-proclaimed mother back then – Sushma Swaraj had to intervene to resolve the dead lock. The impasse did not end there. The party was divided into factions headed by several leaders each pulling the other in the power. Reddy’s influence was also such that when Nitin Gadkari was BJP Chief, he had flown to Bellary and attended the function under the party banner without any invitation to the then state chief minister – BS Yeddyurappa. This led to Yeddyurappa having reservations against the BJPs Central leadership.
Yeddyurappa became much more vulnerable when he was indicted by the then Lokayuth Chief Justice Santhosh Hegade (who portrays himself as self-righteous, with latent political inclinations) in the illegal mining report. What exacerbated the situation for BSY was – he was accused of taking a kick back of Rs. 13cr for awarding an irrigation project to a private firm. The nepotism, the inescapable undue favoritism towards Lingayat community from BSY led to the enemies in the party. The BJP practiced “Operation Kamala” in order to further strengthen their number of 110 MLAs. Clearly, most of the MLAs elected from the BJP ticket were migrants and outsiders. All these allegations made BJP look weak to fight against the corrupt UPA 2 government at the Centre.
The BJP’s Central leadership had no other way but to ask BSY to relinquish the post although it did allow him to choose his successor.
BSY started feeling a heat of him being cornered by his own party. He started alleging that Ananth Kumar, Venkaiah Naidu (who used to represent RS from winning here in Karnataka) ciphering L.K.Advani. BJP leaders started washing their dirty linen in public. BSY started having a troubled and toxic relation with his longtime friend – K.S. Eshwarappa, another dominant BJP leader. BSY also faced increased corruption cases from his opponent – H.D. Kumarswamy from JDS. He even had to face the wrath of his own Lingayath community because of choosing D V Sadananda Gowda (DVS) from Vokkaliga community, which swear their allegiance to Gowdas of JDS and Congress. In order to be the face of Lingayat community, BSY asked D V S to step down and anointed another Lingayath leader – Jagadish Shettar as CM of the state.
BSY backed on Lingayat community leaders and floated a new party – KJP (Karnataka Janata Party). He also vowed that he would prevent BJP from getting into power. KJP ended up getting 10 percent vote share spoiling the fortunes of BJP. This led to Congress forming the government in the State in 2013 Assembly elections. BSY merged his party KJP with BJP and rejoined the party becoming its Party President. He was then absolved from all the corruption charges and the courts gave him a clean chit.
The current incumbent Siddaramaiah government is possibly the worst government that the state ever had. It is involved in minority appeasements and populist subsidy schemes.
People are craving for strong BJP led government with Modi at Centre and BSY in the State. But in the recent bypolls in two constituencies of Karnataka, the results were embarrassing for BJP, with Congress being a clear winner.
It seems like State BJP leaders have not learnt lessons. The BSY faction and K S Eshwarappa factions are at loggerheads. They are not ready to bury down their hatches despite Amit Shah intervening. If they have to realize their most ambitious Mission150 for 2018 State Assembly elections, it is a high time to roll up the sleeves and start reaching out to masses with renewed vigor. It is a great start that BJP has already identified the 150 winning candidates based on their internal polls with BSY being declared as its Chief Ministerial candidate.
Finally, the State leadership needs to learn from the win in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. If Amit Shah’s Congress Mukt Bharat needs to be realized, then it is at most necessary to reach out to all the communities and the leaders start resolving all the differences. Surely, BSY has a great task ahead. I only hope the adage that –“The party ruling at the Centre, will not rule at the State” turns into a farcical statement.