The re-entry of Lingayat leader and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa into the BJP has given the party confident of facing the coming Lok Sabha elections.
While the BJP has got a shot in the arm, the Congress is facing some unexpected problems with dissidence surfacing in the party over the inclusion of DK Shivakumar and Roshan Baig in the cabinet.
In 2008, BSY had led the BJP to a historic win in the state, but he was forced to step down after he was named by Loksayukta Santosh Hegde in the latter’s report on illegal mining. Later, as the BJP marginalised him, a sulking Yeddyurappa launched the rebel KJP in December 2011.
That even contributed to the triumph of the opposition Congress in the assembly election in May. The Congress took 36.55% of the vote, with the BJP getting 19.97% of the vote share, and its breakaways KJP 9.83 and BSR Congress 2.68. The data suggests that if the BJP was united, its vote share could have been higher.
As it happened, the eating away of vote by the KJP and the BSR Congress cost the BJP even the status of the main opposition party in the assembly. Both BJP and JDS had 40 MLAs and JDS was made the principal opposition party considering the vote share, which was more than BJP.
Soon after the defeat, the BJP started persuading Yeddyurappa and BSR congress’ B Sriramulu to return to its fold. However, the process was not smooth, as the BJP suspected that the Congress would armtwist Yeddyurappa to go it alone, by holding the Damocles’ sword of CBI cases over him. The former chief minister too was reluctant to return to the BJP because of the CBI cases against him. At the same time, HN Anant Kumar was opposing Yeddyurappa’s return.
Yeddyurappa’s mind to return was made up once his support base in the districts began eroding, along with the opposition in the BJP central leadership to his homecoming. Many of his supporters such as former MLC Mohan Limbekai and former MLA Suresh Gowda left him, which made him uneasy about an independent existence.
The inability of the KJP to take off also worried Yeddyurappa and he began thinking of coming close to BJP fold again. The BJP’s projection of Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate removed all his doubts about returning.
Yeddyurappa is also confident that the Congress would not use the CBI against him, with the Lok Sabha election looming near, as that would appear to be vindictive.
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