On the Karnataka BJP’s dartboard, one person who seems to be the target for several disgruntled leaders is veteran BS Yediyurappa.
While a tirade of accusations has been launched by Vijayapura BJP MLA and former Union minister Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, other senior leaders like Sadanand Gowda, KS Eswarappa, and CT Ravi have also earlier trained their guns on the leader.
In his latest statement on Thursday, Yatnal alleged that “it is as if the BJP has been handed over to the Yediyurappa family on a platter”, putting the top leadership in a spot again.
The comment comes just 24 hours after Yatnal made serious corruption allegations to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore against Yediyurappa while managing the Covid-19 pandemic in Karnataka.
Speaking in Vijaypura on December 27, Yatnal claimed: “Do you know how many thousands of crores of rupees were looted due to irregularities during Covid-19? They have done everything possible (corruption)… did you know what rate Yediyurappa charged for a mask that costs Rs 45 each during Covid-19? The government priced it at Rs 485 for each mask… Let them serve me a notice, I will expose each of them.” Yatnal was also an aspirant for the state president’s post which was wrested away by BSY’s younger son, BY Vijayendra.
Another video featuring Yatnal, which cannot be independently verified by News18, was aired by local channels where the leader is allegedly heard saying that Yediyurappa blackmailed the party high command that he will not tour the state for the Lok Sabha elections unless they make his son the Karnataka BJP chief.
“It is no surprise to me that Vijayendra had funded candidates against me, but you won’t believe that he even funded candidates who contested against Bommai, and even Somanna who would have comfortably won the Govindarajnagar seat. Who do you think misled Hema and got him defeated?” Yatnal was heard saying in the video in another jibe targeting BSY.
Close on the heels of Yatnal’s series of comments, another veiled attack came from an ex-confidante and an unhappy former Union minister, DV Sadananda Gowda. His recent statement that “a dictatorial attitude has crept inside BJP” is seen as one directly pointing a finger at BSY.
“We all know what happened to a dictator like Indira Gandhi and how it caused the decline of Congress. We should try and get out of this dictatorial attitude and take decisions after consulting everybody,” Gowda said, adding that he would raise the issue in the upcoming core committee meeting of the BJP.
One may recall that Gowda, a former Karnataka chief minister, had stepped in to fill BSY’s shoes in 2011, when the former was arrested and sent to jail in an illegal mining case. Gowda, upset with the way the party leadership had been treating him, announced his retirement from active politics in November 2023.
He has also been critical of Shikaripura MLA Vijayendra being made the state president of the BJP and called the new unit under him “not strong”. When Gowda was president of the Karnataka BJP, he had suspended Yatnal from the party, but it was Yediyurappa who had urged him to re-induct the leader.
“He has embarrassed the BJP repeatedly and it is because of him we are facing this situation today,” Gowda said in another attempt to target BSY for his decision.
Recently, when Vijayendra decided to rejig the state unit and appoint new office bearers, Yediyurappa’s detractors termed it as an attempt to bring in “KJP-2”. In 2012, BSY disassociated himself from the BJP, the party that he single-handedly brought to power in 2008 in southern India, to form the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP). He had told this reporter in an interview then that he “felt suffocated in the BJP and had no other option but to quit the party”.
Recently, a party meeting that was called by a senior BJP leader from the central core team to discuss strategies for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was skipped by BSY, a parliamentary panel member, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, and then Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel.
BSY’s former political secretary and close associate MP Renukacharya criticised the senior BJP functionary for holding the meeting in the absence of Yediyurappa. Renukacharya claimed that those who were holding the meeting did not build the BJP like BSY did and the meeting was being held as the leader had aspirations to become the chief minister of Karnataka someday.
“The curse of Yediyurappa is the main reason for the humiliating defeat of BJP in Karnataka. Those who held meetings did not build the party. He [senior BJP leader] came from the Sangh Parivar in 2006-07 and now aspires to become the chief minister. He is controlling the whole party and had created his own gang, while he decides candidates for elections, they never get elected,” Renukacharya had alleged.
“He sidelined Yediyurappa slowly to ensure that the party is in the hold of his protégés. Denying a ticket to Jagdish Shettar who has been the Speaker, opposition leader, and chief minister shows how that group functions,” further alleged the former minister.
Meanwhile, another senior BJP leader who has also served as Karnataka’s deputy chief minister in the BSY cabinet, KS Eswarappa, wrote a letter to the then Karnataka governor in an unprecedented move, complaining about BSY’s interference in his ministry.
Eswarappa, who had rebelled earlier as well against BSY, had raised some serious allegations at the time. He alleged interference in administration, nepotism, indiscriminate release of funds from outside the budgetary allocation, and violation of norms when it came to the division of power between the chief minister and his cabinet.
During the peak of the Karnataka assembly elections, CT Ravi, former national general secretary of the party, had kicked up a storm while exposing the chinks in the BJP’s armour with his comment against BSY. During a media interaction on which candidates were to get tickets and whether winnability was a criterion, Ravi had said: “Just remember one thing, the decision on tickets of candidates will not be taken in anybody’s kitchen. Nobody will get a ticket just because they are somebody’s son and the decision on the ticket will also not be taken in the home of the aspirant.” Though this was seen as a direct attack on the Yediyurappa camp, Ravi clarified later that it was a general statement.
BJP’s central leadership has been relying on Yediyurappa’s comeback and active role in state politics for the party’s performance in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. His ability to secure key posts for his son and loyalists has certainly irked many, but after the May assembly poll debacle, the party high command has decided to let the political play continue with the hope of wresting all 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in their favour.
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