Yeddy battle now shifts from people's court to legal courts

Overriding strident opposition from within the party, most notably from state president Eshwarappa and central leader Ananth Kumar, he fought to assume the leadership of the BJP campaign in Koppal by-polls.

He even sent his close aides Basavaraj Bommai, Shobha Karandlaje and Lakshman Savadi to Nagpur to persuade RSS leaders to provide him a major role during the campaign.

They argued that since Sanganna resigned during the former chief minister’s tenure, the onus of taking the party through in the polls should naturally go to Yeddyurappa.

Eshwarappa resisted and his word carried weight as Koppal has sizeable presence of kuruba voters, the community he hails from, besides lingayats. The Congress even fielded former MLA Basavaraj Itnal, who hails from the Kuruba community, as its candidate.

But in the end the central party leaders decided to go with Yeddurappa probably given his impressive record in winning elections. Their gambit paid off as Karadi Sanganna won the poll quite comfortably.

It will interesting to watch how Yeddyurappa will now take further the campaign for his political rehabilitation. He has already announced a plan to take out a rath yatra ‘to spread information on the programmes implemented during his tenure’.

He is also sharpening his attack on Lokayukta report, which was instrumental in dethroning him. He is said to be writing a book to expose the shortcomings of the Lokayukta report.

While Yeddyurappa has yet again proved his hold on the lingayat voters, he still has to worry about the courts. Battling several cases of corruption, he is worried about the joining the ranks of politicians who have been out behind bars for abuse of power.   

“God only knows whether my bail plea will be considered or not,” he said recently.