AFTER months of threats and posturing, the former poster boy for the Bharatiya Janata Partyits most identifiable face in Karnataka for three decadesB.S. Yeddyurappa, 69, quit the party on November 30.
A dyed-in-the-wool Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) worker, he rose to become the BJPs first Chief Minister in a southern State in May 2008. He soon found himself surrounded by dissidence and facing charges of corruption and nepotism. He was unceremoniously dumped in July 2011 after he was indicted by the Karnataka Lok Ayukta in its report on illegal iron ore mining. Ever since his exit, Yeddyurappa, who hails from the dominant Lingayat community, has not let slip any opportunity to needle the BJP at the Centre and in the State.
That is something he would hope to continue doing at the hustings, having joined the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), a new regional outfit.
But things are not hunky-dory for Yeddyurappa either. Accused of being a tyrant and surviving at the helm only because of an indecisive BJP central leadership, he has miles of political ground to cross if he is to challenge the Congress and the BJP.
Though he claims the support of around 60 BJP legislators, including a number of Ministers, not many of them have joined him. Also, his political clout is limited largely to the Lingayat-dominated constituencies of north Karnataka. History is also against him: no regional party, not even those floated by mass leaders like D. Devaraj Urs and S. Bangarappa after they broke away from their national parties, has succeeded in Karnataka.
Also, the decision to chart his own political course stems more from the need to ensure political survival and protection from the law than from any realistic hope of becoming the single largest party in the next elections. Yeddyurappa is hoping that even 30 seats for his KJP will give him enough clout to play kingmaker. (The present political climate in the State indicates that neither the Congress nor the BJP is likely to secure the majority in the next Assembly elections.)
Yeddyurappa told Frontline that he quit the BJP not because the central leadership failed to stand by its assurances to reinstate him as Chief Minister when the courts gave him some relief, or to appoint him BJP State president the day after he stepped down, but because he was not allowed to complete the development programmes and plans he had initiated.
Said Yeddyurappa: For the last one year, there has been no development in Karnataka. The people are suffering. Today, we have a non-working government. Even in Bangalore, most of the citys corporators are only looking to loot.
Ravi SharmaCOMMents
COMMents
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