Till noon on Friday, nearly all media outlets were leading with the news B.S. Yeddyurappa would become the chief minister of Karnataka for the fourth time later in the day. That was until the letter from Yeddyurappa to Governor Vajubhai Vala, staking claim to government formation, started doing the rounds of social media.
The letter from B.S. Yediyurappa staking claim to form the government
The letter caught the attention of sharp-eyed social media users who noticed the BJP strongman's name had a 'D' missing and an 'I' in its place. The name had been changed to Yediyurappa in both the letterhead and signature column. According to local media reports, the Yediyurappa name was added to the BJP leader's office name plate in the Assembly complex. However, his official Twitter handle had 'Yeddyurappa' till late afternoon, after which it sported the name change.
Is the name change really a surprise? Not really, long-term watchers of Karnataka politics would say. Yediyurappa was the original name of the BJP leader till October 2007. The surname of Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa comes from Yediyur village in Tumkur where he was born in 1943.
2007 is when the BJP leader changed his name to Yeddyurappa based on the advice of an astrologer. According to Rediff, “On October 11 2007, an astrologer advised the BJP leader to change his name from Yediyurappa to Yeddyurappa.” At that time, the JD(S)-BJP coalition ruling Karnataka was in turmoil over the issue of Yediyurappa becoming chief minister in place of then incumbent H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Within a month, the new 'Yeddyurappa' was able to become chief minister in November 2008, though his tenure lasted only a week. Whether the 'Yeddyurappa' name brought a change in fortunes is up for debate: He did become chief minister twice more, never coming close to completing a full term in office. News 18 reported on Friday numerologists and astrologers had advised the BJP leader to revert to Yediyurappa as the name change in 2007 apparently did not work.
Yediyurappa is not the first Indian politician to opt for a spelling change on astrologer's advice. Late AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha added an extra 'A' to the end of her name in 2001 on the advice of her astrologer. Jayalalithaa, seemingly, had better fortune than Yediyurappa, winning the Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu in 2001, 2011 and 2016!
