The BJP’s target in Karnataka is to win 150 of 224 assembly seats in the 2018 state elections, and 25 of 28 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, said former Karnataka chief minister and state BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa. “The party is united and fully geared to achieve the target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah,” said Yeddyurappa to THE WEEK.
He said there were no differences within the party at the moment. “All BJP leaders in the state are working in a single-minded pursuit of ensuring a Congress-mukt Karnataka.”
Recently, senior BJP leader and leader of opposition K.S. Eshwarappa and Yeddyurappa had engaged in an unpleasant public spat. After the incident, the party’s central leadership sacked four office-bearers from both factions.
The state BJP unit dismissed allegations that Yeddyurappa refused to eat food that was cooked at a Dalit’s home and instead ate idlis ordered from outside. Yeddyurappa and other party leaders, some days ago, had visited a Dalit family in Chitradurga district as part of the election campaign. Said Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, “He has been in politics for 40 years. Didn’t he remember the Dalits before this?”
Yeddyurappa, 74, is considered the tallest leader among the influential Lingayat community in the state. His return to the BJP has energised the party cadre in the state. Yeddyurappa was made to quit as chief minister in July 2011 after the Lokayukta report indicted him in an illegal mining scam. After being sidelined in the party, Yeddyurappa formed the Karnataka Janata Paksha in December 2012. The candidates of the KJP came second in 35 constituencies in the assembly elections in 2013, affecting the BJP’s prospects and allowing the Congress to come back to power in the state after seven years. In January 2014, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Yeddyurappa merged the KJP with the BJP, and the BJP won 17 of 28 seats.
Said Yeddyurappa, “I have toured the entire state. People are fed up with the corrupt Congress government in the state and are waiting to throw them out.”
