Internal strife, quota conundrum plagues BJP

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: The multi-pronged divisions within the Karnataka BJP are giving the saffron party’s central leadership sleepless nights, adding to the state government’s anti-incumbency issues ahead of the crucial assembly polls, slated to happen in three months from now.

Two major roadblocks for the BJP are former chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s marginalisation within the party’s state unit and him flexing his muscles before the central leadership while making it clear that he should be given his due if he is to use his clout for the party's campaign.

The other issue is the Panchamasali Lingayats, the biggest sect among the Lingayats, demanding a greater share in reservation.The BJP depends heavily on the Lingayat vote for electoral success and so the Panchamasali quota issue has put them in a dilemma.

The quota war was triggered in December when the Basavaraj Bommai administration decided to implement the recommendations of the Nagmohan Das Commission and expand the Scheduled Caste (SC) quota from 15 percent to 17 percent and Scheduled Tribe reservation from five per cent to seven per cent. The move had political undertones since Dalits account for about a fifth of the state's population.

The decision, alongside the Apex Court upholding the 10 percent quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) had a domino effect with the Panchamasalis demanding that they be given 15 per cent reservation under the 2A category. The quota is set aside for Backward Classes (BCs) that depend on 'traditional' occupations. Panchamasalis, who are mostly an agricultural community, don’t qualify for this quota, said sources.

Divisions within divisions

The Panchamsalis themseves are split into two camps on the quota issue. One camp is led by Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami of the Kudalasangama Mutt in Bagalkote and Vijayapura MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal.

The other is headed by Vachanananda Swami, who leads a mutt in Harihar in Davangere district and is backed by State Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani and Public Works Minister CC Patil. An ugly spat had broken out between them with Yatnal branding Nirani a pimp while the latter threatened to cut the former’s tongue. CC Patil had called the rival camp’s protests “politically motivated”

And had alleged that Congress workers had joined their demonstration in Haveri district’s Shiggaon town, where they burned an effigy of CM Bommai, who is also the local MLA, for denying them the quota under 2A.

Yediyurappa’s gambit

Meanwhile, the veteran Yediyurappa has managed to paint himself as the salve for the BJP’s wounds even as he is being marginalised with the state BJP leadership calling a meeting with the party’s national general secretary BL Santosh excluding Yediyurappa and issuing invites to Bommai and party state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, among other bigwigs instead.

So when the for mer CM, a mass leader, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few days ago at the BJP’s national executive meeting, Yediyurappa is believed to have narrated the present quagmire the Karnataka BJP finds itself in and bluntly told the PM that the party couldn’t win without him campaigning extensively.

Modi is said to have mollified the Lingayat leader and assured him that the BJP valued him, promising a major role in the party’s electoral campaign. Yediyurappa is angling for plum positions for his son and his supporters in the party in future.

A decade ago when the Lingayat leader was made to step down as CM and was eventually arrested over graft charges, the miffed Yediyurappa had formed his own Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) and ensured the BJP’s defeat in the 2013 Assembly elections. Which is all the more reason why the BJP top brass including PM Modi are going the extra length to pacify him.