Retired, But Not Out: Why The BJP Just Can’t Get Over Yediyurappa

A politician’s quest for power is eternal. Even when forced to retire, they watch from the sidelines, waiting for a chance to jump right back into the game, into relevance no matter how old they are.

And, though BS Yediyurappa, the main star in the BJP’s Karnataka script to date, made a farewell speech at the state assembly four decades after he entered it, he is far from losing electoral relevance.

The party's central leadership, which forced him to resign from the chief ministership mid-term in 2021 to push for a younger face, has had to accept that Yediyurappa remains a factor in the coming Karnataka polls. Home Minister Amit Shah himself asked voters in Ballari to "trust Narendra Modi and Yediyurappa once more", underscoring the septuagenarian’s importance.

But what exactly about Yediyurappa has made him indispensable to the BJP?

National narratives have made him synonymous with the Lingayat vote, which forms the backbone for the BJP in the southern state. But that’s just one part of it. In fact, with the Congress' state leadership dominated by non-Lingayat leaders such as former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, the Lingayat identity remains a BJP narrative.

What Yediyurappa represents is a politician from the era of consensus and coalitions. A leader who has friends and personal allies that cut deep beyond party divisions and social polarisation. Something the new-age BJP doesn’t showcase.

While he was the dedicated RSS worker who struggled through to build the party vote by vote, he was also the moderate who could manipulate political alliances and induct socialists to Congressmen with ease to win an election.

And, with all these alliances, he was an expert at the ‘power by hook or crook game’. He has been at it for the last two decades, whether it was dealing with the Reddy brothers, allying with the JD(S) in 2006, or engineering the resignation of Congress and JD(S) MLAs in 2019.

Given that the BJP never secured a simple majority on its own in a general election in the southern state, it was Yediyurappa's ability to strike those manipulative alliances that got the party to clinch power. And, in 2023, that stock may still be in demand.

While it has swept parliamentary elections in the state, including 26 of the 28 seats in 2019, riding on the Narendra Modi persona and Hindutva consolidation, it is on a sticky wicket in the fragmented electoral arithmetic of a state election.

The fact that caste consolidation in assembly segments change the arithmetic has meant the BJP still can’t project itself to a clear majority, even at its best.

For instance, Hindutva and the Lingayat vote reap rewards in coastal and large parts of north Karnataka, but in large parts of the Old Mysore region the BJP has traditionally struggled to make major gains as the narrative remains caste consolidation between the JD(S) and the Congress.

In addition, the party will face anti-incumbency in 2023. The very alliances that Yediyurappa forged to bring it to power brought corruption, and it can neither shed the leader nor the taint.

For his part, he is not the strongman who broke away from the party in 2012. Instead, he will exert his authority on seat distribution and secure his son BY Vijayendra’s future. His control over the years has ensured that there is no one else with his mass appeal, and that’s obvious when he shares the stage with other leaders, including the chief minister.

Ultimately, if Karnataka throws up a fractured mandate, like it did in 2018, the party may need BSY for the clincher. On the other hand, a clear majority could reduce the BSY influence, but that seems elusive, and a defeat will make everyone irrelevant!

TM Veeraraghav is Executive Editor at BQPrime