Karnataka BJP After 2023 Debacle: New Look, Old Problems

The defeat in the Karnataka assembly elections of 2023 was the most significant electoral loss the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had to face since its West Bengal campaign of 2021.

The vote share gap between the BJP and the Congress was in excess of seven points and the seat tally of the party came down from 104 to 66.

It was only seven months after the defeat that the party announced a new president for its Karnataka unit. B Y Vijayendra replaced Nalin Kumar Kateel as the new chief of Karnataka BJP.

Vijayendra is the son of former chief minister and Karnataka BJP stalwart, B S Yediyurappa.

His appointment was seen as both expected and unexpected.

Why Was It Expected?

In the assembly election held in May 2023, the BJP faced a setback in the constituencies located in central and northern Karnataka. This region is electorally and demographically dominated by the Lingayat community. The Yediyurappa family is Lingayat.

Close to 70 seats fall in the region and the previous strong performances of the BJP in Karnataka were driven by a good showing in these seats. In 2023, however, the party could only secure around 20 of them. This loss was attributed to the Lingayats moving away from the BJP and towards the Congress.

If the party had to recover from this loss and prepare for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it was necessary to win back the support of the Lingayat community.

Vijayendra's appointment is seen as a step in that direction.

Why Was It Unexpected?

After the 2023 loss, many leaders, cadre, and supporters expected that the party would move into a post-Yediyurappa era. Even though he had vacated the chief minister's post in 2021 itself, he still dominated the Karnataka unit of the party.

Observers were also of the view that the BJP leadership sought to delink Lingayat support from the Yediyurappa family and instead develop a more organic association with the community.

Vijayendra's appointment, however, suggests that that plan has been put on hold for now.

His appointment was also unexpected for the message it would send to other Lingayat leaders of the party. Sure enough, Basangouda Patil Yatnal, another senior Lingayat leader from northern Karnataka, seems visibly displeased for being overlooked for the post of the BJP state president.

"Newly appointed state president Vijayendra has made his ‘loyalists’ and supporters the office-bearers of the state party unit. Former chief minister B S Yediyurappa had in the past quit the BJP and formed KJP. Now, his son Vijayendra has formed KJP-2 within the BJP," Yatnal told reporters last month.

The Changes

Amidst this tussle, the party nonetheless announced a new team of office-bearers.

Notably, all four general secretaries, V Sunil Kumar, P Rajiv, NS Nandish Reddy and J Preetham Gowda are well under the age of 50 and at least one of them — Sunil Kumar — can even be called a former detractor of Vijayendra and Yediyurappa.

Hailing from the Billava community, which is a prominent Other Backward Caste (OBC 2A) group, Sunil Kumar is currently a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Karkala in coastal Karnataka and has held important portfolios when the BJP was last in power in the state.

The new team also includes individuals from diverse professional backgrounds. Captain Brijesh Chowta, for instance, served as an officer in the 7th Battalion of the prestigious 8 Gorkha Rifles. He has been appointed as a secretary in the Karnataka BJP.

A former Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) officer Dr Lakshmi Ashwin Gowda, has also been appointed as a secretary. She hails from Mandya, a district in which the party has historically struggled to perform well.

In contrast to what some senior leaders are saying, party insiders Swarajya spoke to said that "that there are signs of enthusiasm within cadre. We have got over a thousand applications for various positions. Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the party's youth wing, has seen a substantial influx of applications, pointing to a mobilisation of the younger demographic."

The changes being attempted by the BJP to organise and reorganise its state unit will go through a tedious process. While the immediate objective is a good show in the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies this summer, the project to rebuild the party ground up and reconcile internal strife will continue well beyond that.