After the Union Cabinet reshuffle indicated a generational change within the BJP, the get together on Monday managed to convey a couple of turnaround in Karnataka with BS Yediyurappa. resign from the submit of chief minister and left the race for succession open.
With recollections of 2012 – when Lingayat heavyweights walked out of the get together, ruining the BJP’s political fortunes within the state – this time round, the BJP management is treading cautiously because it seeks a candidate who will win the subsequent election in a position to lead the get together. In 2023, have been conscious that it might solely accomplish that with the blessing of a 78-year-old veteran.
Party leaders indicated that “the leadership will consider Yediyurappa’s priorities” whereas selecting his successor. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan would be the get together’s central observer to supervise the election of the brand new chief.
“We have to assess the tone and mood before finalizing the successor. The party will send an observer to elect a new leader, who will be elected this week. A decision will be taken after discussions at both the central and state levels,” mentioned a prime BJP chief.
When requested whether or not the brand new chief minister could be from the Lingayat neighborhood, get together leaders have been divided of their response.
One chief identified that Yediyurappa, who “wants to accommodate his son B Vijayendra before leaving”, is eager to retain the Lingayat management inside his household, and should, due to this fact, go for a non-Lingayat chief. “But the party is proceeding cautiously as we do not want to harass Lingayats, who form a major part of our support base,” the chief mentioned.
In 2012, after Yediyurappa give up the BJP, he fashioned the Karnataka Janata Paksha, which pushed the BJP to the third place within the 2013 meeting elections.
While a number of names of potential CM candidates are doing the rounds, together with Mines Minister Murugesh Nirani and a Lingayat face within the Yeddyurappa cupboard, one title that has created quite a lot of buzz within the nationwide capital is Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi. Joshi, not a Lingayat chief, sources mentioned, can’t be opposed by Yediyurappa.
Despite his rising age, Yediyurappa – a frontrunner who rose to nationwide stature within the pre-Narendra Modi-Amit Shah period and for whom the get together put aside its 75-year age restrict – is just not somebody to whom after leaving the get together. To turn into chief minister, identified a senior BJP chief who’s acquainted with developments in Karnataka.
That is why, not like in 2011, when the get together despatched a battery of central leaders asking them to resign as their names have been embroiled in an unlawful mining case, this time, the BJP central management didn’t remark towards Yeddyurappa. Nor did it accomplish that. Send any chief to the state on the day he introduced his resignation. In truth, each normal secretary in command of Karnataka Arun Singh and BJP president JP Nadda saved saying Yeddyurappa was doing a “good job”.
Perhaps one of many final BJP chief ministers who did not want Hindutva politics or Modi’s charisma to win elections, Yeddyurappa has at all times been an element within the BJP’s success within the southern state. In truth, the BJP’s fortunes within the states have intently mirrored Yeddyurappa’s rise and fall within the get together.
Unlike many different leaders of the present BJP, Yeddyurappa was by no means the poster boy of Hindutva. Instead, he was primarily a peasant chief who managed to align his help base with the cultural and nationalist ethos of the BJP. Under his management, the BJP noticed regular development within the state amid the turmoil within the politics of the Janata Dal and the Congress.
“Yeddyurappa took the BJP from urban areas to villages. He played a role in forging a pole away from the Congress and helped stabilize that pole,” senior BJP chief P Muralidhar Rao, who was earlier in command of Karnataka, instructed The Indian Express.
Nevertheless, get together leaders mentioned that with elections after two years, the choice to exchange him with a brand new face is a “good political move”, as a result of as a senior chief mentioned, “Yeddyurappa will hold another election after two years.” I can’t lead the get together. After Yeddyurappa is in workplace for 4 years, the get together can’t contest elections with a brand new CM face. This is the fitting time to alter and put together the get together for the submit 2023 interval.”
However, the newest developments within the state, particularly by Lingayat leaders towards Yeddyurappa’s removing, haven’t gone down effectively with the BJP management. Although Yediyurappa himself appealed to his protesting supporters, a piece of the central management believes that the protest might be “stage-managed”. “The BJP does not want anyone to hold him for ransom,” a senior get together chief mentioned.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
