Reel-life hero C P Yogeshwar faces real test

'Sainika' in firing line

Anything can happen when Karnataka goes to polls in 2023. This uncertainty is especially true for Tourism Minister C P Yogeshwar, who admitted that his electoral prospects seem bleak right now.

He is in the news following his visit to New Delhi where he reportedly lobbied for Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s ouster.

“In the current situation, will I win? It’s difficult. Those we have to fight have joined forces with our own people. This politics of understanding will affect me,” Yogeshwar said earlier this week.

Yogeshwar has kicked up a storm within the ruling BJP by claiming that this government, which many say he helped come to power, had become a “three-party government” catering to the interests of all three parties. He also made a veiled attack on BJP vice-president B Y Vijayendra, Yediyurappa’s son, for allegedly interfering in his department.

And now, Yogeshwar faces backlash from within the party. That he was ‘rewarded’ with a ministerial post in spite of losing the 2018 Assembly election and albeit him being a “party-hopper” has not gone well with many leaders. “He wanted either water resources or energy portfolio. Yediyurappa made him an MLC and a minister even though he lost elections. This was a big mistake,” Chief Minister’s Political Secretary M P Renukacharya, one of Yogeshwar’s fiercest critics, says.

A lone soldier

For all the “party hopper” jibes, Yogeshwar sees himself as a lone soldier working for the development of his taluk Channapatna. On several occasions, he has responded to the criticism by stating that Channapatna was more important than his party affiliation. Yogeshwar has the Garkalli and Kanva lift irrigation projects to his credit, giving him huge popularity. The projects helped fill several tanks in the region.

From a supporting role in Ravichandran’s cult classic Ranadheera to playing the hero in the 2002 hit Sainika, Yogeshwar has come a long way. His political career began in 1999 when he contested as an independent candidate from Channapatna and won. He consecutively won in 2004 and 2008 from Congress. He jumped ship to BJP in 2009. Then, he contested against H D Kumaraswamy in Lok Sabha elections and lost.

In a 2011 bypoll, he won from BJP and became the forest minister. Around the same time, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) launched an inquiry into Mega City Builders and Development Ltd, a company Yogeshwar started in 1995, for allegedly executing fake sale deeds and not allotting sites to investors as promised.

Yogeshwar managed a victory in 2013 as a Samajawadi Party candidate from Channapatna. A year later, he joined back Congress.

Six months before the 2018 Assembly polls, Yogeshwar joined BJP again alleging that Congress leaders D K Shivakumar and D K Suresh were trying to scuttle his growth. However, he lost to Kumaraswamy from Channapatna.

Losing ground in Ch’patna

Yogeshwar, who is said to have anchored the plan to bring down the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition, is faced with the challenge of sustaining his political run. Apparently, he has antagonised the Yediyurappa camp so much that his clout is getting restricted even in his constituency, with his rivals Shivakumar and Kumaraswamy cashing in on this.

The BJP having lost ground in Channapatna in the recent Town Municipal Council and gram panchayat polls has added to the pressure. “He was touted as the party’s Vokkaliga face against Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar. The party-backed candidates have not even won in his Chakkere gram panchayat limits,” a BJP leader says.

While Yogeshwar is banking on the BJP central leadership to back him as the party’s Vokkaliga face in the region, the resentment he faces is a likely obstacle. The Sainika is now gearing up for a real war, a political one this.