Yeddyurappa vs Eshwarappa: The Cold War in Karnataka BJP

The BJP’s rank and file in Karnataka has been in a fix for the last four months, caught in a cold war between two heavyweights.

The clash is between BS Yeddyurappa, state BJP president and former chief minister, and his former deputy KS Eshwarappa, the former Deputy CM, also an ex-state unit president and currently the Leader of the Opposition in the state council. It is a clash between one who has mass appeal and another who has caste credentials.

It became very public two weeks ago when Yeddyurappa announced three drought-review teams to tour Karnataka, specifically leaving out Eshwarappa.

“Inclusion in a drought assessment tour is not some kind of (sic) cabinet berth. If he had included him in one of the three teams, it would have been no big deal. But no, he had to leave him out of the party’s official teams to tour different districts. Now there are more people backing Eshwarappa, purely because Yeddyurappa is opposing him so much,” said an aide of Eshwarappa.

Sources told CNN News18 that the vision or mission of the brigade is quite unclear other than that it was perhaps being formed to spite Yeddyurappa who belongs to the influential Lingayat community.

Eshwarappa is a leader of the Kuruba caste and has been attempting to lead a parallel movement for upliftment of Dalits and backward castes, akin to what Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had attempted to do in 2005.

The love for backward castes and Dalits also stems from recent caste surveys that hint at these castes forming the voting majority, as against what was believed before — the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga castes are said to have become numerically weaker, though official data of the survey is yet to be released.

Eshwarappa’s reaction to being left out of the drought-review teams was a muted “I don’t know”. He added he has always accepted Yeddyurappa being projected as the chief ministerial candidate for Assembly 2018, what was left unsaid was: I don’t know what he’s afraid of.

Even before August, there has been simmering discontent within the BJP when, after taking over as state unit president in April, Yeddyurappa brought in his own ‘yes-men’ in all party committees– including the district and taluk level ones. Several party workers who were stripped of their posts ran to Bengaluru to present their case but nothing changed. Anyone identified as being in the Ananth Kumar ‘camp’ or the Eshwarappa ‘camp’ or was affiliated to any leader who had questioned Yeddyurappa at any time was out.

“Those who don’t dance to his tunes were peremptorily thrown out. For instance, I have always been a party worker, I worked for the greater interest of the party, and went by what the sitting president told me to do. I would have worked for him (Yeddyurappa) too, the same way. But he felt I may plant stories against him. That’s sad, someone with such a huge level of insecurity, how can he lead the party as a CM-face now?” asks an ousted BJP man.

“He thinks people are constantly scheming against him. Ideally, with the powers the party has give him, he should be exuding confidence, walk like an elephant. If he can’t take party workers with him in anything he plans, how will he lead six crore Kannadigas,” he added.

D Venkatesh Murthy, a three-time corporator of the BJP who was mayor of Bengaluru during the BJP regime, wanted to be general secretary of the party’s city unit. He didn’t get that post and says he almost thought of quitting the party.

“There are many of us who wanted to quit the party because the work we have put in for the party’s growth wasn’t getting recognised. Then we all decided to the join the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade. We have convinced others too to stay on in the party. And help us in forwarding the cause of backward castes through this brigade,” Murthy said. He is currently the general secretary of the brigade, and continues to be a member of the BJP.

The brigade, he claims, has members not just belonging to OBC and dalit communities but a large number of others too. So far, the purpose has mostly been a show-of-strength exercise – they have held rallies in Nandagad, and plan a big one in Kudalasangama in north Karnataka on January 26, the death anniversary Sangolli Rayanna, the 18th century warrior of the Kuruba community after whom the brigade is named.

Eshwarappa’s aide claims thousands of supporters are attending their rallies, including over 15 bus-loads of supporters from Yeddyurappa’s Shikaripura constituency who went to the last one. Shikaripura alone is supposed to have over 32000 Kuruba voters, and Yeddyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra won by a slim margin of just over 6,000 votes the last time around.

“Just in becoming a party president, if he has started behaving so arrogantly, imagine what would happen if he becomes chief minister? That’s why this brigade has the tacit support of many state and national leaders who don’t want him to grow too big. Why else is it they many of them are silent – including Union ministers?” a party man said.

The party had deputed Ram Lal, its national general secretary, to patch things up between the warring leaders but that meeting barely managed to postpone the brigade’s plans, not really put an end to them.

“Such dissent is neither good for the party or the state. And Eshwarappa is not the kind of person who would do anything to seriously affect the party. He too comes from the Sangh parivar and knows how important discipline is. This brigade hasn’t converted into any big force that we need to worry about it, it’s merely an irritant. We are hoping things will sort themselves out eventually,” said a Bengaluru MLA.

Another MLA, on condition of anonymity, says Eshwarappa is nobody without his caste backing. In fact, he probably rose to the position of deputy CM only because of this. With all his supporters being sidelined within the party, Eshwarappa faced an existential question and perhaps floated the brigade to only keep himself relevant, the MLA said.

Sources said that Yeddyurappa is rattled, which has emboldened the brigade. But the fact that a parallel force has not been dealt with strictly at the national level shows many are covertly supporting Eshwarappa in his mission to ‘rein in’ possible dictatorial ambitions of Yeddyurappa. What else explains the fact that it has not been nipped in the bud, that no Union minister has wanted to intervene or get the national leadership to intervene?