Former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa’s decision to retire from electoral politics marks the end of a long innings of one more first-generation BJP leader in Karnataka.
Four-time chief minister B S Yediyurappa has already announced his retirement.
Yediyurappa and Eshwarappa join the ranks of BJP stalwarts D H Shankaramurthy and Ramachandra Gowda, who built the party in the state and have now moved into oblivion. The late V S Acharya was also part of this team.
The BJP’s growth story in Karnataka that starts from Shivamogga is incomplete without Eshwarappa.
A BCom graduate from Acharya Tulsi National College of Commerce, Eshwarappa teamed up with Yediyurappa and Shankaramurthy - the triumvirate of Shivamogga politics - to start a Torino soft drinks factory in Shivamogga back in the 1980s, while they laid the bricks and mortar to build the BJP.
Eshwarappa’s first electoral win came from Shivamogga in 1989, when he defeated the then health minister K H Srinivas.
In the next election in 1994, the BJP increased its tally from four seats to 40. Eshwarappa, then the state BJP president, was instrumental in the saffron surge.
The 5-time MLA served as a minister every time the BJP was in power - during the coalition with JD(S) in 2006, between 2008 and 2013 and from 2019 till 2022.
Eshwarappa has been the BJP’s Kuruba face, representing a prominent backward community that Congress’ Siddaramaiah also belongs to. As a native BJP leader with roots in the RSS, Eshwarappa is a vociferous Hindutva campaigner.
Retirement hailed
Several BJP leaders hailed Eshwarappa’s decision to retire from electoral politics.
“I congratulate Eshwarappa on making way for youngsters. Such a sacrificial attitude is seen only in the BJP,” the party’s national general secretary C T Ravi said.
BJP Yuva Morcha national president Tejasvi Surya said Eshwarappa’s decision must be emulated. Surya said Eshwarappa, Yediyurappa and H N Ananthkumar built the BJP in Karnataka.
“His decision to make way for newcomers is what makes BJP the party with a difference,” he said. Eshwarappa is the fourth BJP lawmaker to announce retirement ahead of the May 10 polls after Yediyurappa, Haladi Srinivas Shetty and S A Ravindranath.