After Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana and Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh, will Karnataka see the emergence of a dark horse for the top post, if the BJP sweeps the 2018 assembly polls?
Last April, former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa became the state BJP president for the fourth time. The Shimoga MP, who had been kept outside the Union cabinet over his pending corruption cases, was acquitted by the CBI court last October. A month later, BJP's national president Amit Shah declared Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate for the 2018 polls.
Yeddyurappa seemed to be the BJP's best bet. The mass appeal of the Septuagenarian, the sizeable Lingayat population in the state (a crucial votebase of the BJP) and the Congress' increasing appeasement of the Ahinda (minorities, backward classes and dalits) all worked in favour of Yeddyurappa. But the recent developments within the state BJP has triggered unrest and open dissidence from senior leaders like K.S. Eshwarappa, leader of the opposition in legislative council.
Last week's 'Save BJP' rally led by Eshwarappa saw an overwhelming response from party workers, which left Yeddyurappa shaken, the cadres confused and the central leadership fuming.
Amid the war of words between the BJP leaders, the one name that cropped up was of BJP's national joint organising secretary B.L. Santosh. Yeddyurappa suspects that the person behind the success of the 'Save BJP' campaign is Santosh. Yeddyurappa's followers believe there is a secret lobby working towards bringing Santosh back to the state politics ahead of the polls.
The man in the eye of the storm is a media-shy RSS pracharak “Santosh ji” (as he is fondly known as in the BJP circles), known for his simplicity, acumen in social engineering, organisational skills and community service.
A native of Hiriyadka in Udupi and an engineering graduate, Santosh (now in his early 50s) joined the RSS as a fulltimer inspired by the ideals of K.B. Hedgewar and has worked extensively in Mysuru and Shimoga districts before being deputed as the state BJP's organisational secretary. Santosh also takes the credit for holding the party together in 2013, when splinter parties like Karnataka Janata Paksha (led by Yeddyurappa) and BSR Congress(led by B. Sriramulu) threatened to destroy the BJP. He successfully ran the “missed-call” membership drive in Karnataka and registered nearly one crore new members in 2014-15.
Meanwhile, the BJP weighed down by its corrupt image (which threw them out of power in the 2013 assembly polls) is sure looking at an image makeover. Fielding fresh faces is one of the strategies the party will bank on.
The 'Save BJP' rally has had the tacit support of many senior leaders, who feel that Yeddyurappa is an old-timer and has no belief in internal democracy. Some leaders like Chikmaglur MLA and state general secretary C.T. Ravi openly expressed anguish over Yeddyurappa accusing Santosh of instigating rebellion.
Said C.T. Ravi, “He (Santosh) is an RSS pracharak with no selfish motives and someone who has dedicated his life for the country. The strong pracharak tradition practised by the likes of Deendayal Upadhyay, L.K. Advani and Kushabhav Thackeray has helped the BJP emerge as a strong party. However, the decision as to who should be the CM candidate should be left to the BJP leadership.”
Is the present fracas due to Yeddyurappa's own insecurity of losing out on the CM's post (as he turns 75 next year), or is it a fallout of the BJP gravitating towards new leadership as in the case of Maharashtra, Haryana and UP? Only time can tell.
