Bengaluru: Senior Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader K.S. Eshwarappa is leading the charge against former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who is facing increasing dissent against his tightening grip on the party in the state.
The two senior leaders have a history of conflict, with Eshwarappa having accused Yediyurappa and his family of “interference, mismanagement and authoritarianism” in the past.
Eshwarappa has announced that he will contest as an Independent against the BJP’s official candidate and incumbent MP in the Shivamogga constituency, B.Y. Raghavendra, Yediyurappa’s son. He has gone so far as to say that he would continue in the race “even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his home”.
His stance has resonated with several others in the state unit and caught the attention of the party’s top leadership in Delhi.
Ever since the ticket distribution for Lok Sabha elections was finalised for Karnataka, simmering dissent has boiled over in the party ranks, with several leaders accusing Yediyurappa of overlooking seniors to accommodate members of his family and close circle.
With weeks to go before the two-phase polling in Karnataka on 26 April and 7 May, the outpouring of dissent against Yediyurappa and threats to contest as Independents over the denial of tickets are likely to have a bearing on the party campaign — giving the Congress hope of regaining lost ground after the BJP won an unprecedented 25 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
Despite the internal turmoil — including personal attacks from Eshwarappa after his son was denied a ticket, and Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, among others — there has been no significant action against the dissenters speaking against Yediyurappa.
On Wednesday, Eshwarappa was summoned to Delhi by Union Home Minister Amit Shah but was not granted a meeting. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru after his return Thursday, Eshwarappa — a former deputy CM — said that Shah’s refusal to meet him was tacit approval for him to contest as an Independent.
“When I sit and discuss these issues with him (Shah) and if he (Shah) feels that what Eshwarappa is doing is right…he cannot directly ask me to contest elections (as an Independent). He would be in a tricky spot if he invited me to talk and could neither ask me to contest nor stay away. The best thing for him to do was avoid the meeting,” he told reporters at Bengaluru airport Thursday.
According to political analyst Sandeep Shastri, Eshwarappa will be no more than an “irritant” and not a game changer in Shivamogga — Yediyurappa’s home district.
Shastri added that Eshwarappa contesting as an Independent was unlikely to change the outcome of the elections in Shivamogga.
But on the open airing of dissent against Yediyurappa, Shastri said it was the manifestation of long-drawn-out conflicts within the party.
“This is a proxy war within the BJP at the state level at least. Because after the Vidhan Sabha elections, you had a change in terms of those who…influenced decision-making at the state level. In a sense it is those who are now sidelined fighting back,” Shastri told ThePrint.
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Power struggle
In his last term as chief minister, which began in July 2019, Yediyurappa faced allegations from within the party of corruption and of letting his son B.Y. Vijayendra run a parallel government. An open letter purportedly written by a section of senior BJP leaders and ministers to draw the central leadership’s attention to Vijayendra’s alleged interference in the administration, had surfaced in 2020. Yediyurappa went on to resign in 2021.
At the time, the spotlight was on B.L. Santhosh, the BJP’s national general secretary (organisation), widely seen as at odds with Yediyurappa and believed to have later influenced the party’s choice of candidates for the 2023 state polls.
However, after the BJP was reduced to just 66 in the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka last year, Yediyurappa has managed to regain all the lost ground.
He reinducted former CM Jagadish Shettar — who had openly blamed Santhosh for denying him a ticket and defected to the Congress — appointed Vijayendra state president of the BJP, and secured a Union cabinet position for party leader Shobha Karandlaje. Despite facing allegations of non-performance, Karandlaje even replaced ex-CM D.V. Sadananda Gowda as the candidate in Bengaluru North.
Though Yediyurappa managed to wrest control of the party, his son being named state party chief led to an outpouring of dissent, which manifested in open rebellion from the likes of Eshwarappa and Gowda.
Meanwhile, though Yediyurappa did not manage to secure tickets for all his loyalists, those who went against him — overtly or covertly — have been denied tickets.
All those who were considered close to Santhosh, or had spoken out against Yediyurappa, have been left out of the 25-candidate. Notable figures like Nalin Kumar Kateel, Sadananda Gowda, Prathap Simha, and C.T. Ravi were all denied tickets.
‘Parivarvaad’ and ‘purifying’ BJP
Last month, after Eshwarappa’s son, K. E. Kantesh, was denied a ticket, the former deputy CM started to make more personal attacks against Yediyurappa.
“If you tear open my heart, one side you will find Sri Ramachandra and the other will be Modi. But if you do the same with Yediyurappa….one side you will find his two children and the other will be Shobha [Karandlaje]… I am not saying this but workers are,” he said at a public meeting in Shivamogga in March.
Party leaders like Eshwarappa and Gowda have pledged to “purify” the party of elements they believe are not inherent to the “BJP’s culture and traditions”.
In an interview, Gowda told ThePrint: “Practically, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to see a BJP with some principles. Especially, as far as parivarvaad (dynastic politics) …the family dynastic politics and other things, he wants to eradicate it. Similarly, corruption…he wants to see that corrupt people are kept away from political scenarios,”
Gowda has indicated that certain “issues” within Karnataka cause embarrassment for the BJP, diminishing the effectiveness of its criticisms against the Congress, which it accuses of fostering dynastic politics and allowing power to stay concentrated within the Gandhi family.
He said the central leadership would begin the “cleansing” of the state unit after the elections.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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