Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—The 79-year-old B S Yediyurappa, credited with bringing BJP to power in Karnataka, was removed yesterday from chief ministership unceremoniously, with BJP high command not assigning any reason for it. He was the party’s first chief minister in a southern state. He became BJP chief minister four times in the state: First on November 12, 2007, but resigned after seven days on November 19, 2007, as he could not prove majority; Second time from May 30, 2008, to August 4, 2011; Third time from May 17, 2018, to May 23, 2018, just for six days and Fourth time from July 26, 2019, to July 26, 2021, after two years.
Speculations are going on in the political corridors about the reasons for his ouster: from his old age to allegations of corruption against him and his family members and his liberal ideology, inclining to accommodate the minorities and protect their rights, despite his RSS background. He is compared with former BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his liberal views. But those familiar with the new type of politics in the saffron party ever since the ascendancy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in the decision-making of the party say that his solid mass base and his grip over the Lingayat community, including the Lingayat mutts and seers from where he drew his political strength, was the reason for the high command to remove Yediyurappa from the post of the CM. If his mass support-base, particularly among the Lingayats forming 17 percent of the state’s population who determine the outcome of polls in 100-110 assembly seats out of a total of 224 seats in the state, was his political strength, the same also proved to be his undoing because the Modi-Shah duo is averse to leaders laving strong base, particularly in their community. So, his strong support base at the grassroots level in Lingayats of North Karnataka proved a double-edge sword for Yediyurappa.
If BJP insiders are to be believed, leaders with a strong base have not been very pliant to the dictates of the high command, and they always try to function independently of the party’s central leaders. And this was very much true with Yediyurappa, who maintained a relationship with the party’s coterie and asserted his independence. However, as the Modi-Shah duo is not used to approve the independence of their party’s regional leaders, they were opposed to the Yediyurappa’s independent style of functioning, and he had to pay the price for it.
BJP leaders, on conditions of anonymity, say the Modi-Shah pair has been practicing the same thing in other states as well. In Gujarat, the duo has not allowed a Patel chief minister and installed Vijay Rupani, a Jain, with no base, as the state’s CM. Patels are politically the most dominant community in the state, and a chief minister from the community would have asserted his independence. Likewise, Modi managed to install Manoharlal Khattar, a migrant from the Pakistani part of Punjab, as the CM, again with no mass base. The duo avoided appointing a Jat as Haryana’s CM, resulting in a Jat agitation in March 2017. But the Jat protest was crushed with a heavy hand.
Similarly, the BJP high command wanted to appoint a docile Manoj Sinha (now lieutenant governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir) as UP CM in 2017, but Yogi Adityanath revolted against the decision. Under RSS pressure, the BJP high command had to change its decision and surrender to Yogi Adityanath’s demand. While no reports of resistance against the central leadership have come from Gujarat and Haryana, there have been displeasing reports for the high command from UP and Karnataka where the CMs did not accept the dictates of the high command that undermined the authority of CMs. This led to a confrontation between the high command and the CMs. While Yogi Adityanath managed to withstand the pressure and refused to appoint former IAS officer and Modi’s Man Friday Arvind Kumar Sharma as deputy chief minister by getting him elected in the state legislative council, Yediyurappa was not lucky enough and became the victim of ego politics.
BJP politicians with a mass base like Keshubhai Patel of Gujarat, Yediyurappa of Karnataka, Bhaironsingh Shekhawat of Rajasthan, former foreign minister Jaswant Singh, or former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee never used the language of hatred for political gains because they commanded the support of the people. But leaders like Modi and Shah, with no mass and hailing from caste groups with small populations, depended on language of polarisation for their political survival. This partly explains the rise of communal hatred and violence in India and the rise of leaders in BJP with no mass base.
Yediyurappa, who has been pushed out of CM’s post, has not given up the fight. Though he had quit the BJP in 2012 after being forced to resign from BJP and formed his own party – Karnataka Janata Party – that harmed the BJP in the 2014 assembly elections, reports say he is not in a mood to leave the party again. Instead, he wants to use his influence to become state party chief by virtue of his connections with the Lingayat seers close to RSS and settle his two sons – BY Vijayendra and BY Raghavendra – into the party.
Therefore, there does not seem a chance of the repeat of the 1990s when the Lingayat community had revolted and moved away from Congress after the dismissal of Veerendra Patel as chief minister. The BJP has already appointed three Lingayat MPs as ministers at the Centre to ward off any attempt by Yediyurappa to harm the party by staging a revolt as he did in 2013. However, much will depend on how Yediyurappa reacts politically after his humiliating removal. But the age seems to be against him though he continues to be very agile and active as any young politician. But the BJP has undoubtedly weakened the domination of the Lingayat community, their leaders, and seers in future politics of Karnataka by showing Yediyurappa the door despite Lingayat religious leaders throwing their weight behind the outgoing CM. The same that the Modi-Shah duo did with Patels (Patidars) in Gujarat and Jats in Haryana.
Who will replace Yediyurappa?
The next question is: Who will replace Yediyurappa? According to BJP sources, a decision in this regard is likely to be taken in a few days, and the next CM will take oath on Saturday or Sunday.
Given the Modi-Shah style of running the party, there is no chance of a strong leader with some mass base being allowed to become CM. Instead, there is every chance of a weak and pliant leader, with hardcore Hindutva ideology likely to be made the CM to offset the political loss of the Lingayat community, if any, by using divisive language for polarising the majority community votes in the party’s favour.
Among the probables doing the rounds are BJP national general secretary CT Ravi, a Hindutva hardliner and hailing from the Vokkaliga community, numerically second to Lingayats. Ravi is considered close to PM Modi and the RSS. The second name is Prahlad Joshi, a union minister and known for his proximity to Modi. Joshi is a Brahmin, a community that accounts for around three percent of the state’s population. However, his chance appears slim, with assembly elections drawing near in which caste and community relations matter much.
Karnataka deputy chief minister CN Ashwanath Narayan, a Vokkaliga, Karnataka Home Minister Basavraj Bommai, son of former chief minister S R Bommai, Arvind Bellad, MLA from Hubli-Dharwad west and Murugesh Nirani, Karnataka minister for mines and geology, are also among the running.
