What’s at the root of CM-change rumours?: ‘Maybe they stem from his insecurity’

Not everyone's captain?

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will remain in office, the BJP’s executive committee asserted strongly earlier this week, and the whisper campaign that wants him out has been put on mute.

The story does not end there. As Bommai and the BJP step into a new year that will put Karnataka in election mode, if it isn’t already in one, there are talks of a ‘big’ Cabinet overhaul after the Sankranti festival.

But why, and how, is Bommai at the receiving end of speculation that the state will get a third BJP chief minister? There is no simple answer, and the buck may end with Bommai himself.

Also read: Karnataka BJP executive body backs Bommai, warns against speculation

Bommai became the chief minister five months ago, taking the reins from veteran B S Yediyurappa in a state seen as the BJP’s gateway to south India. Bommai kickstarted his innings making welfare his plank, while also projecting himself as the simplest of the netas’ lot.

Generally, the first six months of any new government is dubbed the ‘honeymoon’ period, to settle in and get a hang of things.

Even before this ‘honeymoon’ ended, rumours of a change in leadership became so widespread - as fresh as a week ago - that the bureaucracy smelled something fishy going by Bommai’s body language. “He is always on the edge, shouting at officers,” one officer says.

A senior leader blames Bommai for setting off rumours. “If he won’t assert himself, then Bommai will be seen as easy-going, reinforcing the view that he’s a night watchman.”

Poll defeats

Karnataka has seen four elections, all of them carrying their own significance, after Bommai became the chief minister.

In all four, the BJP’s performance was subpar. This week’s urban local body election results, for example, were disappointing for the BJP and did little to help Bommai’s cause.

Also Read | Big changes in Karnataka? Bommai dismisses speculations as 'media creation'

The chatter in the BJP reveals some common threads: Bommai is yet to find complete acceptance from within the party, a section of legislators feels he is not taking them into confidence, and he is always surrounded by a coterie that insiders call “bad company”.

Another senior leader says while legislators were not averse to Yediyurappa throwing his weight around, Bommai’s attempts to emulate the former CM’s attitude has met with scorn.

“Is he feeling insecure? One symptom of that is for a person to be confined to a group comprising people who show loyalty,” a senior BJP office-bearer says.

“He knows there are people within the party who haven’t accepted him. But the point is that he should be taking everybody along.”

The discontent is simmering. “We are disappointed,” the office-bearer adds.

“There isn’t much difference between the Yediyurappa and Bommai governments. The sort of nepotism that plagued the previous administration continues. Native BJP leaders are not getting their due vis-a-vis those who came from the Congress and JD(S).”

Hindutva agenda

With welfare on one hand, Bommai is also chasing the Hindutva agenda, making people speculate that he is doing that to keep his chair safe.

The latest is the plan to free Hindu temples from state control, which former Congress minister Priyank Kharge says is “another example of CM Bommai trying to fit into RSS”.

One cannot rule out the possibility that the whisper campaign against Bommai is the handiwork of the ‘disgruntled’ ministerial aspirants. The 34-member Cabinet has four vacancies.

“The CM himself told me that there are plans to overhaul the Cabinet after Sankranti,” BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, a former union minister who was among the first to publicly predict Yediyurappa’s removal, said earlier this week. Yatnal himself is seen as a ministerial aspirant.

As captain, Bommai should be assertive, senior BJP MLC Lehar Singh says. “And, he should put an end to the gossip.”

(With inputs from Akram Mohammed)

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