‘BJP leadership failed to groom leaders in Mysuru region’

Even as BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa resigned on Saturday as chief minister, 55 hours after being sworn-in for the third time on May 17, this despite being elected as the single largest party with 104 MLAs in the house of 224 members, the party leaders in the region said that it was a self-goal as the national and state leaders failed to strengthen the party and groom leaders here.

Basavegowda, a BJP worker since over two decades, said, “The BJP emerged as the third force, besides the traditional rivals Congress and the various forms of the Janata Parivar in 1994, with the election of S A Ramdas, in Krishnaraja, H S Shankaralingegowda in Chamaraja and E Maruthi Rao Pawar in Narasimharaja Assembly constituencies of Mysuru city, C H Vijayashankar from Hunsur and also B B Shivappa from Sakleshpur in Hassan district.”

The party worker said that in 1999, Dr Bharathi Shankar from T Narasipur and V Papanna from Hunsur were an addition, while Pawar lost and Vijayshankar did not contest the elections.

“If the national and state leaders had strengthened the party since the 1994 and 1999 victories, the BJP would have grown into a major party in the region by now. The BJP lost the opportunities since forming the coalition government with the JD(S) in 2006 and forming the government independently in 2008. The party was further decimated with the formation of the KJP by Yeddyurappa in 2013. Even after Yeddyurappa returned to the BJP, no steps were initiated to take all leaders into confidence and to strengthen the party. The BJP and KJP divide is still evident in the region. Some leaders such as Ramdas were elevated as ministers but none grew into a father figure,” he said. The BJP is still riding piggyback on JD(S). All affairs of the BJP are decided by the JD(S) leaders such as G T Devegowda and Sa Ra Mahesh,” Basavegowda said.

G Basavaraju, a BJP worker, said, so far the party has not been able to win any elections, even in the Zilla Panchayat level in Mandya, the home district of state president B S Yeddyurappa. “Despite achieving so much in state and national politics, Yeddyurappa has not been able to win the hearts of the people of his native district,” he said.

“The leaders do not take any steps to iron out the differences and rivalry between the leaders. The workers are left in a confused state. The party does not groom any candidate to contest the polls. It waits from some disgruntled migrant to issue tickets. If there are no defections from other parties, some scapegoat is fielded in the last moment,” Basavaraju said.

The party worker said that, “The biggest blunder during the just concluded polls was the denial of ticket to B Y Vijayendra, younger son of Yeddyurappa, in Varuna constituency. I don’t know before the denial of the ticket to Vijayendra, but since the denial of ticket, his popularity sky-rocketed. The party failed to encash on his popularity. If Vijayendra was the candidate from Varuna, he could have influenced the results of the neighbouring constituencies also.”

“The BJP has given a tough fight and has emerged runner-up in Narasimharaja, Varuna, Sakleshpur, Belur, Hanur and Chamarajanagar constituencies, while it has given a good show, despite being pushed to the third place in H D Kote and Mandya constituencies, said Rajendra, a party worker. “In all the constituencies, including the ones in which the party has emerged victorious, the candidates were left to fend for themselves. The leaders believed that the rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah alone would win the polls.
The leaders did nothing to encash on the charisma of the national leaders. Once Modi and Shah left, the leaders here went into sleeping mode,” he said. “The induction of senior leaders like former chief minister S M Krishna and former minister V Srinivas Prasad was not used for the benefit of the party. If the party had issued a ticket to Krishna’s daughter Shambhavi from Maddur, like Prasad’s son-in-law B Harshavardhan was fielded in Nanjangud, a better show would have been possible,” said Rajendra.