On Friday, 2 November, the BJP in Karnataka was on damage control mode. While a set of leaders gave sharply worded statements against Congress for their “Trojan horse” tactics, the other approached the Karnataka Chief Election Commission, demanding the postponement of the by-election in Ramanagara assembly constituency.
On the morning of Thursday 1 November – 48 hours before the by-election in Ramanagara – BJP’s candidate in the constituency had changed camps. Claiming lack of support from the BJP leadership, L Chandrashekar quit the BJP and joined the Congress party. With his departure, and as the by-election is due on Saturday, 3 November, the BJP is now left without a candidate.
During the 24 hours that followed Chandrashekar’s defection, the BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa was at the receiving end of the wrath of the party’s central leadership. Three other leaders – union minister DV Sadananda Gowda, R Ashoka and CP Yogeshwar, who were in charge of Old Mysore region of Karnataka, to which Ramanagram belonged – too came under fire.
Also on the side lines, the RSS faction in the Karnataka BJP was making a move against Yeddyurappa to reduce his role in candidate selection and campaign management in the 2019 general election, citing his failure to avoid this debacle.
“The Operation Hastha”
Hours after L Chandrashekar left the BJP, the optics within the Congress camp painted a clearer picture.
MChandrashekar travelled in Congress MP DK Suresh’s car to a local Congress party office to address the media. DK Suresh is the younger brother of inister for Irrigation, DK Shivakumar, who is known as the Congress party’s crisis manager in the state.
At the press meet, DK Suresh said Chandrashekar has given his unconditional support to the JD(S)-Congress alliance candidate Anitha Kumaraswamy, the wife of the Karnataka chief minister.
Chandrashekar had joined the BJP, three days before the last day of filing nominations for the by-election. He had then claimed that he left the Congress because he was unhappy over the Congress’ decision to leave the Ramanagara seat for the JD(S), where he was to be the Congress candidate.
The BJP, which doesn’t have a strong base in this region, had welcomed him with open arms and made him the candidate. Soon after his resignation from the party, it became clear that he was Trojan horse planted by the DK brothers.
In the Congress camp, this coup d'etat is being dubbed as Operation Hastha (The Congress party symbol).
RSS Faction Finds Opportunity
Lets rewind back to 15 May 2018, the day the Karnataka assembly election results were announced. At the basement of BJP’s Bengaluru headquarters, the group of advisers to BS Yeddyurappa were having an informal chat with reporters. Just minutes before, the JD(S) and Congress had announced an alliance, and Yeddyurappa was racing against time to reach the Raj Bhavan to claim his right to form government, this despite the fact that he was short of a simple majority.
Yeddyurappa’s advisers argued that it was the RSS insistence to field leaders from the cadre that cost the Lingayat leader’s chances of reclaiming the chief ministerial throne.
“If it wasn’t for the RSS, we could have won with absolute majority, but they didn’t allow Yeddyurappa to field all of his candidates,” said one of the advisers. He was referring to the infighting within the party during the candidate selection ahead of the assembly polls. The RSS faction and the BSY faction had their difference, which prolonged the process and resulted in shuffling of candidates several times.
For the BSY camp, it was clear that BSY’s choice of candidates would have ensured victory. But during the candidate selection meetings in New Delhi, RSS insisted on candidates of their own choice, many of them failed to win the election. Taking credit for the 104 seats the party won in the assembly election, Yeddyurappa had proven himself to be more reliable than the RSS.
But after the Ramanagara debacle on Thursday, the tables have turned. The RSS has expressed its concerns over BSY’s ability in candidate selection and campaign management. According to sources, there were several communications between the RSS leaders in the state and central leadership over the same.
While the RSS was handling their case against Yeddyurappa internally, senior BJP leader and MLC Leher Singh wrote a letter accusing Yeddyurappa of tarnishing PM Modi’s image for small political gain. The letter was written in the context of the Ramanagara mismanagement.
So Who Will Benefit From This in the By-election?
Ramanagara is a stronghold of the JD(S) and coup was not needed to ensure victory. But the BJP, through this election, was hoping to make inroads into the Old Mysore Region of Karnataka, where it doesn’t have strong base. This attempt has been successfully stopped. As for the by-elections – which is also a litmus test of the coalition’s unity – the Congress has sent a strong message to its coalition partner JD(S).
But most importantly, the Congress has managed to create an internal rift within the BJP, which was clear by the RSS’s move against Yeddyurappa.
However, it is not all that simple. Some leaders within Congress believe this move could help the BJP. A Congress leader told The Quint that this coup could be seen as a battle between the two dominant communities in the state – the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas. The Old Mysore Region, to which Ramanagara belongs, is a Vokkaliga stronghold, and both Kumaraswamy and DK brothers belong to the Vokkaliga community.
“It could be seen like two Vokkaliga leaders have come together against Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat leader. This could help Yeddyurappa gain sympathy votes in Jamkhandi and Bellary constituencies (which will also be going for the by-election). These places are dominated by Lingayat voters. Ramanagara was an easy seat to win for the coalition, but this has made fights in the tougher constituencies even more difficult,” the leader said.
Can Yeddyurappa be Dethroned?
Even though under pressure from the national leadership and leaders in Karnataka, it will be difficult to replace Yeddyurappa as the face of the party.
“Is there another mass leader in Karnataka?” asked one of the senior BJP leaders commenting on the issue. “With the Congress and JD(S) coming together in Old Mysore Region, the focus will be on north Karnataka. In this Lingayat-dominated region, Yeddyurappa still remains the leader of the masses. So any attempt to sideline him in the 2019 general election would backfire for the party,” he said.
However, the coup pulled off by the DK brothers have managed to rattle the BJP and has taken away their chances of setting up a base in the Old Mysore Region for now.
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