Bengaluru: The growing influence of four-time Karnataka chief minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader B.S.Yediyurappa continues to be on an upward trajectory as two of his loyalists found a place in the Union cabinet.
Shobha Karandlaje and surprise pick, V.Somanna, took oath Sunday as ministers of state. Karandlaje is a trusted aide of Yediyurappa, while Somanna is considered to be part of Yediyurappa’s close circles.
But, placing loyalists has triggered some disquiet among his core-support base: Lingayats. The Lingayats are believed to be the single largest caste group in Karnataka.
“They have given cabinet berths to Vokkaligas and two Brahmins. And Minister of state to one Vokkaliga and one Lingayat. There is some disquiet in Lingayat circles,” a senior Karnataka BJP leader from the community told ThePrint.
Together with Nirmala Sitharaman (a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka), Pralhad Joshi, and H.D.Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular), Karandlaje and Somanna make up for five berths from the southern state. Karandlaje is a Vokkaliga; Somanna a Lingayat.
“Lingayats have backed the BJP…almost 80-85 percent back the party but we have never been given a cabinet berth. We have to think about why this is happening,” Prabhakar Kore, an ex-MP and a vice-president of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, told ThePrint.
The Lingayats are known to vote as a bloc when it considers any action a threat or an insult as was seen in 2008 when the community backed Yediyurappa after Kumaraswamy, a Vokkaliga, pulled out support just seven days after the BJP leader took over as the chief minister.
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Ex-CMs overlooked
Two former BJP CMs — Jagadish Shettar and Basavaraj Bommai — won in the general election, but both have been overlooked.
According to senior BJP leaders, Bommai fell out of favour for not retaining power in 2023 and Shettar’s induction would “send out the wrong message”.
Shettar had risen from the Sangh and gone on to become CM in 2012. But he left the BJP and joined the Congress, citing that leaders like national general secretary (organisation) B.L.Santosh had humiliated him. He lost the 2023 assembly elections, then made an MLC, but returned to the BJP in January.
“The Lingayats have unqualifiedly supported the BJP, but are being shown the door by the party. The party could have taken either Shettar or Bommai in the Union cabinet,” Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha general secretary S.M.Jamdar told ThePrint.
The Congress capitalised by emphasising how the BJP had ‘humiliated’ Yediyurappa and denied tickets to Shettar and even Lakshman Savadi among others in the hope that the Lingayats would switch sides in 2023.
“Are Lingayats only meant to provide votes for the BJP? The party could have accommodated a Lingayat in the cabinet as well as an SC (Scheduled Caste). We are not asking just for ourselves,” V.S.Natraj, a director of the central committee of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, told ThePrint.
Natraj says that giving Shettar a ticket from Belagavi, where he won, influenced other neighbouring seats like Hubballi-Dharwad and Gadag-Haveri.
Karnataka has a complex caste equation, and it influences every aspect of social and political life in the southern state. With the two other Lingayat leaders overlooked, Yediyurappa is said to have suggested the name of Somanna.
“It is true that Somanna is from the Yediyurappa camp but also that H.D.Deve Gowda also pushed his name,” the senior BJP leader cited above said.
There is also some dissent against the under representation of northern Karnataka. Though Joshi is from Hubballi-Dharwad, there are voices growing for the inclusion of a Lingayat.
Not long ago, Kumaraswamy had said that Brahmins from northern Karnataka had a very destructive mindset and that the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, wanted to replace Yediyurappa with Joshi but did not go through with it fearing a backlash from the Lingayat community.
Against all odds, 73-year-old Somanna won in Tumakuru by a margin of 1.75 lakh-plus votes. Last year, he had lost from both Varuna, against Siddaramaiah, and in Chamarajanagar against C. Puttarangashetty.
In the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government, Somanna served as housing minister and threw his hat in the ring to be given in charge of Bengaluru portfolio. Somanna is among the few leaders to have been elected from all three major political parties of Karnataka – JD(S), Congress and BJP.
Somanna was first elected on a Janata Dal ticket in 1994. He successfully contested as an independent in 1999 and then again in 2004 on a Congress ticket. He then moved to the BJP where he remains to this day.
‘Purification’
In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, Yediyurappa ensured that his loyalists like his son B.Y.Raghavendra (who is also the BJP state chief), Govind Karjol, Karandlaje among others were given tickets. But more importantly, he made sure that his detractors or those considered close to Santosh were denied tickets.
Nalin Kumar Kateel, Prathap Simha, C.T.Ravi, Sadananda Gowda and several others were denied tickets, leading to a breakout of dissent against Yediyurappa.
Former deputy chief minister K.S.Eshwarappa had openly criticised Yediyurappa and his family.
Referring to the increasing control of ‘Appa-Maklu’ (father-children), Eshwarappa decided to contest as a rebel and was expelled from the BJP. He was upset that his son, K.E.Kantesh, was not given the BJP ticket from Haveri-Gadag while Raghavendra was fielded for a fourth time. But, Eshwarappa got just 30,050 votes.
Several senior BJP leaders like D.V.Sadananda Gowda, Basanagouda Patil and others mirrored the sentiments of Eshwarappa, calling for a “cleansing and purification” of the state unit from the clasp of the Yediyurappa family.
“Vijayendra cannot be seen as just Yediyurappa’s son. He has shown individual ability to run the party as well,” a senior national BJP leader told ThePrint.
But more importantly, analysts say, is the role that Yediyurappa plays as a consensus or ‘coalition builder’. Since 2000, Karnataka’s voters have given a majority on just two occasions — 2013 & 2023 — forcing alliances to retain or regain power. This has led to parties depending on communities to blur the party lines much like Yediyurappa with Lingayats and Deve Gowda with Vokkaligas.
“Who else will play that role? I don’t think the son (Vijayendra) is in a position to play that role as of now, or anyone else in the BJP,” Bengaluru-based political analyst Narendar Pani said. “That is a role that only Yediyurappa and Siddaramaiah can play. Where can you build alliances across a large number of parties?”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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