The BJP seems to be falling back on its seasoned oarsman B S Yediyurappa making him a key poll mascot, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as it shores up campaign in poll-bound Karnataka. The octogenarian, who has already announced his retirement from electoral politics, is sought to be put on the pedestal by the governing party’s central leaders.
The reasons are not far to seek as to why Yediyurappa has been pushed to the top of the campaign plank, the four-time Chief Minister, who built the party from grassroots level, has a mass appeal and connect — particularly the political influential Lingayat community — that no other party leader in the State commands.
It’s now quite evident from the BJP’s campaign narrative that the party is banking on the “Yediyurappa factor” and putting him up as the “poster boy” by leveraging his clo ..
The BJP central leadership — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, party President J P Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh — have been lavish in their praise of Yediyurappa, during their public meetings in the State in recent days.
It’s not often that in PM’s programme, someone else hogs the limelight, but on one such occasion on February 27, at a public meeting in Shivamogga, it appeared that Modi himself was giving the Karnataka BJP strongman a “pride
a “pride of place” in his “Karma Bhoomi”. The recent public meeting marking the inauguration of the Shivamogga airport, coinciding with Yediyurappa’s 80th birthday, saw Modi terming his contributions to public life ‘inspirational.’
The PM felicitated him on stage as he made an appeal to the people attending the public meeting to flash their mobile phone lights in a gesture of honour to Yediyurappa and there was an enthusiastic response from the large gathering
Then, as the Lingayat strongman concluded his speech, Modi stood up and applauded him. The PM has also made it a point repeatedly to highlight the last speech delivered by Yediyurappa in the Karnataka assembly recently, and said it was an inspiration to every person in public life. Amit Shah too at a public meeting recently had urged the people to repose faith in Modi and Yediyurappa and vote the BJP back to power in the State.
Similar comments have been made by Nadda and Rajnath Singh, who were recently in the state for campaigning.
According to some political observers and BJP insiders, the party’s move to project Yediyurappa seems to be aimed at blunting anti-incumbency, keeping the Lingayat vote-base intact and countering the opposition Congress, which has levelled allegations of corruption against the government.
olitical analyst A Narayana from the Azim Premji University, said the BJP was initially preparing to face elections without Yediyurappa in an active role but “as there was not much for the party to count on locally, it was inevitable for them to repackage and present him”.
That’s the reason they are going out of their way to prove that they have not offended him by asking to resign as Chief Minister in 2021, he said.
“They (BJP) tried their best to secure Lingayat support without ..
