JOIN USYediyurappa and BJP work out terms of severance
It is almost certain that Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) lone mascot south of the Vindhyas and a strong regional leader, has been drawn into playing his final act before being eased out of office.
Everyone is sitting up and watching whether he will follow the script being prepared by the BJP's national leadership for the smooth transfer of power or whether he will give them a hard time.
No regional satrap has posed as much challenge to the politically astute duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as the 78-year-old Yediyurappa has. He is one political conundrum they have found extremely difficult to handle.
Despite Yediyurappa's protestations to the contrary, his back-to-back meetings with Modi, Shah, Rajnath Singh and party present J P Nadda in New Delhi last week have thrown up more than ample hints that the BJP has embarked on divesting Yediyurappa of the chief minister's post and finding a successor to him in preparations for the 2023 Assembly polls and the parliamentary elections a year later.
The contours of how and when to relieve him of office are reportedly being worked out, taking him into confidence. Yediyurappa has been an exception to the unwritten rule in the party of keeping out those above 75 years from elective offices. He took over as the chief minister of Karnataka for the fourth time in July 2019 after engineering defections of 18 MLAs from the Congress and the Janata Dal (S), when he had already crossed 76 years. It was seen as giving him a second chance for losing power within three days of being sworn in after leading the party to an impressive performance but falling slightly short of the majority in the 2018 Assembly polls.
The BJP central leadership perhaps realises now that with his advancing age, rampant maladministration, inept handling of the Covid situation and inability to control dissidence in the party, he could be becoming more of a liability than an asset, and he needs to be urgently replaced.
But, the BJP will be conscious that Yediyurappa's charismatic leadership opened the southern gate for the party in 2008, yet to be emulated in any other southern state, with the first BJP government in Karnataka. More importantly, he has also ensured that in every Lok Sabha election since 2004, the BJP has garnered more than 50 per cent of 28 Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka, which reached a peak of 25 seats in the 2019 elections.
It seems that Yediyurappa has created strong enemies within the state unit of the party by allowing his family members to meddle with the administration. His second son, B Y Vijayendra, has been promoted as a vice president of the party. His two daughters are allegedly involved in the allotting contracts to their favourites, which has caused resentment in the Cabinet. Senior minister K S Eshwarappa went public with his complaint against Vijayendra, but he could not take it beyond a point.
The rebels led by senior MLA B R Patil Yatnal and MLC H Vishwanath have been embarrassing the party by constantly sniping at Yediyurappa and his family members and demanding the resignation of the chief minister. C P Yogeshwar got ministership thanks to Yediyurappa's persistence but has also turned a vocal critic after he found the chief minister undermining his influence in his backyard of Ramanagara district and favouring JD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy for political reasons.
As dissent grew, the central leadership of the BJP despatched its Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh last month. He held a series of parleys with all factions, including the loyalists, for three days and declared that "Yediyurappa is doing a good job, and there is no question of the change of leadership." However, it was only lip service as no effort was made to punish those indulging in indiscipline, and they have taken it as a 'licence' to keep the chief minister under pressure.
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The BJP's central leadership will be fully aware that nudging Yediyurappa to step down will be a delicate task. He has the potential to wreak havoc on the party - as he had demonstrated when removed as chief minister in 2010 - if he perceives that the "terms of severance" are not favourable to him.
Observers have noted that Yediyurappa's trusted aide, Shobha Karandlaje being taken to the Union Council of Ministers recently was intended to send a favourable signal to him. His more immediate concern would be to get a suitable role for his politically ambitious son, Vijayendra. Already a state vice president, he accompanied Yediyurappa during the recent Delhi visit and was formally introduced to Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nadda.
According to the political grapevine, Vijayendra might become a minister or even a deputy chief minister in the next Cabinet, but Yediyurappa is reportedly keen that Vijayendra is made state party president so that he can gain control of the party and have a significant role in distributing tickets for the 2023 Assembly elections.
Yediyurappa would possibly also like to have a say in the selection of his successor, who, more than likely to be another Lingayat, that form the BJP's impregnable vote bank. It could be Murugesh Nirani or Basavaraj Bommai, unless, of course, the Modi-Shah duo has a secret trump card up their sleeves.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.