BJP high command uses BSY to attack Shettar, Savadi after their exit

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: To minimize the damage done to the ruling BJP following the desertion of former CM Jagadish Shettar, for mer deputy chief minister Lakshman Savadi and a host of sitting and ex-MLAs belonging to the Lingayat/ Veerashaiva community, the BJP high command has been utilizing the services of former CM B.S.Yediyurappa.

The saffron party had adopted the same strategy when Yediyurappa resigned from the BJP and floated a new regional party, Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) after being removed from the CM’s post following his alleged involvement in the illegal mining scam in Ballari district. At that time, Jagadish Shettar was the chief minister and he had contended that nothing would happen to the party due to the resignation of Yediyurappa.

The BJP has now used the same tactic to contain the damage caused to the party with Shettar, Savadi, and other MLAs quitting the BJP with which they had a long-time association. The BJP is facing the heat of several sub-sects in the Veerashaiva/Lingayat community after two tall leaders of North Karnataka disclosed how badly they were treated by a few state leaders.

The Banajiga community has been up in arms against the BJP for showing disrespect to their leader and has vowed to teach a lesson to the party in the coming election. Both Shettar and Savadi organized the BJP in Kittur Karnataka (formerly Mumbai-Karnataka region) all these years and that was proved when the party won a sizeable number of seats in every Assembly election.

Though, the duo cannot be compared to Yediyurappa, they still managed to strengthen the party at the grassroot level. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his predecessor, Yediyurappa have been reportedly instructed to tell everyone that nothing would happen due to the desertion of either Shettar or Savadi.

To control the damage, the former CM has been downplaying the contributions of Shettar to the BJP in the N-K Region and portraying him as an ‘opportunistic politician’, Ironically, the Shikaripura MLA had made the same allegations in 2013 against the high command. Can Yediyurappa assuage the feelings of the Lingayats is the big question.