Candidate list ignites storm in K’taka BJP

The old has to pass, the new has to come… and that seems to be happening in the ruling BJP in Karnataka with unbelievable speed considering the developments in the party over the past three days. There were conflicting reports that the veteran, BS Yediyurappa, was unhappy with the Karnataka candidates’ list while others said PM Modi did not want another set of sons and daughters to take over the mantle from their dads. However, BSY finally ensured a seat for his son Vijayendra from Shikaripura. On Tuesday, came the two biggest bombshells – KS Eshwarappa who has been on the boil after being denied a cabinet berth in the Bommai government, announced that he is retiring from electoral politics.

It could be because he has been promised that the Shivamogga seat that he has represented will go to son Kantesh, but it obviously sends out a not so reassuring message to the Kuruba support base of the party. Eshwarappa is the best-known BJP face of the community, the fourth largest group after the Lingayats, Vokkaligas and Muslims. But the bigger bombshell was dropped by none other than former CM Jagadish Shettar who disclosed that he has been asked by the BJP high command to withdraw from the electoral fray.

He has made it clear that he has no plans to do so and would very much like to contest, throwing the field wide open for speculation on whether the Lingayat leader would break ranks with the party. Former CM Yediyurappa has already announced his retirement from electoral politics. What is interesting is that the BJP leadership has time and again tried to break the vice-like grip of leaders like BSY and Shettar, who grew using their caste and community connections, on the party but failed miserably.

In 2011, Yediyurappa himself broke away from the BJP after he was sent to jail in the illegal mining scam but chose to return a few years later after both the Lingayat leader and the party realised how dependent they were on each other for survival. Yediyurappa has over the decades painstakingly built a rapport with the mutts, doling out big funds to them whenever in power and ensuring that they backed him whenever he needed support.

And the BJP knows it cannot do without the Lingayats who are its main support base in north and central Karnataka where they could make or break the fortunes of poll candidates in most constituencies. Imagine the situation if Yediyurappa sulked and decided to keep away from the campaign – it would be a throwback to the 1990s when the BJP did not command the overwhelming support of the Lingayats with then CM Veerendra Patil of the Congress ensuring that the community backed him and the Grand Old Party.

But a series of blunders by the Congress leadership forced the Lingayats, the majority community in Karnataka, to drift to the BJP following which its political fortunes went on the upswing. It remains to be seen if the BJP’s strategy of dumping veterans and opting for a new candidates will succed at the hustings? Or will local satraps like BSY ensure that the ‘high command’ is in Bengaluru and not in Delhi as far as candidate selection is concerned? Candidates for 35 sets are yet to be announced