B S Yediyurappa: A Political Profile

It was May 2014. The euphoria of the amazing victory of Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections was yet to settle down. B S Yediyurappa (BSY) wrote a letter to the soon-to-be prime minister, voluntarily opting out of the race for a ministerial position and dedicated himself for strengthening the party in Karnataka for the future.

He had just returned to the BJP six months back, after a short venture heading the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), whose only achievement was having scuttled BJP’s chances in the 2013 state elections.

As soon as Modi took over the reins, BSY was quickly back in the scheme of things. Due to the Modi and BJP wave, BSY sailed through the Lok Sabha elections from Shivamogga constituency with a margin of over 3 lakh votes.

Given his age, and the tag of being the senior-most leader from the state, BSY could have taken the easy route of becoming a Union cabinet minister, heading a comfortable ministry and then ending his political career five years later. But BSY has never shown an inclination for anything but hard work and challenges. And so, he lent his focus on resurrecting the fortunes of the state BJP, which had sunk to around 40 seats in the 2013 assembly elections.

The selfless sacrifice of BSY in 2014, and subsequent efforts, has no doubt resurrected the party in Karnataka.

Grassroots Worker To Towering Leader

After a brief stint as a government employee in the early 1960s and trying out his luck in business with a hardware shop, Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa jumped into electoral politics in the 1970s. Of course, even prior to that, he had always been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and served as its Shikaripura unit’s karyavaha. During the infamous Emergency from 1975-77, he was jailed due to his association with the RSS and the Jana Sangh.

He kept rising within the power echelons of the BJP, becoming its Shikaripura president in 1980 and then the Shivamogga district president in 1985. In 1988, he became the state BJP president of Karnataka for the first time. He entered the Karnataka assembly by winning the 1983 elections and since then has represented the constituency seven times.

In early 2006, he became deputy chief minister of Karnataka as part of a coalition government with the Janata Dal. However, in October 2007, Janata Dal reneged on its promise to hand over power to BSY after 20 months and the government collapsed. He had a brief stint as chief minister, for the first time, for 12 days in November 2007 when the Janata Dal again failed to live up to its promise of support, and he resigned.

In the 2008 elections, fought under his leadership, BJP won 110 seats and he became the chief minister for the second time. The highlights of his tenure were the special attention to farmers in the form of a separate budget, launch of several irrigation schemes, reformation in temple management and launch of multiple infrastructure projects for Bengaluru.

After having given an efficient administration for three years, he fell victim to the shenanigans of his opponents, both within and outside the party. A number of allegations of corruption, in mining related cases and land deals, were hoisted on him and he was forced to resign in July 2011.

From 2012 to late 2013, Yediyurappa went out of the BJP, which he had served his entire life, and experimented with a new party of his own – the KJP. He showed his might and influence in the 2013 elections, especially amongst the Lingayat voters, and was a factor in BJP’s poor performance in that year’s state elections. The BJP leadership quickly realised its folly and he made an honourable return to the party in January 2014. Needless to say, the false cases hoisted on him started to fall off, and by 2016, he was acquitted in every single case.

Covering the ground, literally

In 2016, he became the president of the state unit of the BJP and started preparations for the 2018 elections. He had to face the problem of dissidence within the state unit, just like in the three-year stint of his chief ministership between 2008 and 2011. However, unlike the “hita-shatrus” at the Centre and state earlier, he got complete support from Modi and party chief Amit Shah this time. By 2017, his candidature for the chief ministership was officially announced. BSY decided it was time to connect directly with the people.

From November 2017 until early January 2018, BSY undertook the ‘Parivartana Ratha Yatra’ covering all 224 constituencies of Karnataka.

Literally living off a vehicle converted into a ‘ratha’, the 74-year-old stalwart covered 6,000 kilometres addressing hundreds of rallies over 75 days. The response from the public was tremendous.

BSY’s task in the rally was three-fold – exposing the disastrous rule of the Congress from 2013 onwards, reminding people of the good work done by his government back in 2008-11 and convincing people how voting BJP would be beneficial as the same party being at the helm at the Centre, and state would give a big push for development under a favourable federal model.

Due to his outstanding commitment and hard work, the BJP increased its tally from 40 to 104 in the 2018 elections and had a brief shot at power. While there is no doubt that the party received a big boost during the final phases of the campaigning from PM Modi’s rallies, which took its total to over 100, it was the groundwork done by BSY through his yatra, rallies and campaigns that brought BJP closer to the 100 mark in the first place.

The Party Man

B S Yediyurappa’s life history is one of complete dedication for the causes he believed in – the upliftment of the poor in Karnataka, the growth and strengthening of his party, and service to Hindu dharma. His remarkable ability to forget the actions of his detractors and make compromises keeping the larger goal of the party and government in mind has meant that both he and the party have grown multi-fold in the past few decades in Karnataka. Being the biggest reason for the first ever success of the BJP in southern India in 2008 will always remain his crowning glory.