Whoever wrote the political obituary of former chief minister Lingayat strongman B.S. Yediyurappa and added him to the latest list of BJP’s margadarshak mandal, will now have to swallow their pride!
Just a fortnight after BSY declared that his son B.Y. Viyendra would be his political heir by making a strong pitch for the latter to contesting the 2023 elections from the family’s home turf Shikaripura constituency, the BJP has sought his services by bringing him onboard the parliamentary board and central election committee, highest decision making bodies of the world’s largest political party. Rising like a phoenix, BSY responded to the party’s move with a tweet thanking the Prime Minister, Home Minister and party president. In the same breath he says now he has the responsibility of building the saffron party in South India and bringing back BJP to power in Karnataka. The writing on the wall is bold and clear–BJP and BSY both need each other more than ever.
BSY had gracefully made way for the new leadership exactly a year ago and since then he has been patiently waiting. The last year saw Karnataka making national headlines, be it on hijab row or the political killings in the coastal areas of the state among others, some proved counter-productive too. Sometimes there was buzz of change in the chief minister, some hush murmurs about an unhappy BSY caged in his official quarters of Cauvery in Bengaluru.
The aura and persona of BSY is such that any top leader party who visited Bengaluru didn’t leave the city without meeting him. On the whole the party top brass realized that BSY is yet not a spent force and there was a lot of politicking left in him, and if the timing of Wednesday’s announcement is anything to go by, the coming assembly elections will be a prelude to the all-important 2024 general elections, with BSY will have his stamp all over these elections.
So what prompted the party leadership to revive BSY’s political journey? The Karnataka Congress gaining ground under D.K. Shivakumar and Siddarmaiah; Backlash and resentment amongst the Lingayat community, which is the dominant block in the state electorate; lack of mass leaders at the state level to carry the party forward; neutralize redemption by BSY by seeking to promote his son Viyendra thereby giving no scope for creation of another power center; stop Congress from breaking away the Lingayat vote share as grand old party’s MB Patil is perceived to be their heir apparent from the community…the points to ponder just grows. The importance attached to BSY at this hour is now seen as a master stroke by the political pundits as it couldn’t have come at a better time. The current situation warrants BSY to take charge of the state BJP first as the outgoing state president hasn’t made any significant impact on the party, secondly, there is heightened activity of internal squabbles and mud-slinging in public under the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai regime, what with his own law minister J.C. Madhuswamy’s leaked audio where he is heard saying this government is barely managing things.
As far as BSY role in Southern India is concerned, he has a daunting task as the party hasn’t made any kind of breakthroughs in Andhra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu or Kerala. While it played the second fiddle in Tamil Nadu, KCR in Telangana and Jagan in Andhra have conceded even a local body. The prospects of BJP was looking bright a couple of years ago in Kerala with polarization and political killings but diminished over a period of time. BSY has to reinvent himself if he has to flex his muscles in these states. But having said that one cannot discount the fact that the bold move to bring BSY back in the political equation at a higher pedestal, the party has now contained implosion and expanded BSY’s acumen in the larger interest of the party which till now was restricted to furthering the political fortunes of his family after stepping down as the chief minister.
