B.S. Yediyurappa: The Lingayat strongman who made it big in corridors of power

Senior BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa was sworn in on Friday as the chief minister of Karnataka for the fourth time, three days after the Congress-JD(S) government collapsed after losing the trust vote in the Assembly, which was necessitated by a spate of resignations by legislators of the ruling coalition.

The 75-year-old Lingayat strongman was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vajubhai Vala at a function in Raj Bhavan.

From the humdrum existence as a government clerk and a hardware store owner to becoming the chief minister of Karnataka for a fourth time, Yediyurappa has navigated the choppy waters of politics with the consummate ease of a seasoned oarsman, defying tidal waves of adversity.

A hardboiled RSS Swayamsevak, Yediyurappa joined the Hindu right organisation when he was barely 15, and cut his political teeth in the Jana Sangh, the BJPs forerunner, in his hometown Shikaripura in Shivamogga district.

He became the Jana Sanghs Shikaripura taluka chief in the early 1970s.

Currently a Lok Sabha member from Shivamogga, he was first elected to the Legislative Assembly from Shikaripura in 1983 and went on to win it five more times.

The Lingayat strongman is known to have espoused the cause of farmers, something which was repeatedly referred to by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his election speeches.

A Bachelor of Arts, Yeddurappa, who was jailed during Emergency, worked as a clerk in the social welfare department before taking up a similar job at a rice mill in his native Shikaripura. Later, he set up his own hardware shop in Shivamogga.

Yediyurappa may have landed in the hot seat in 2004 itself when the BJP emerged as the single largest party, but the Congress and JD(S) of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda cobbled together an alliance, and a government was formed under Dharam Singh.

Known for his political sagacity, Yediyurappa joined hands with H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deve Gowda's son, in 2006 and brought down the Dharam Singh government after the chief minister was indicted by Lokayukta in an alleged mining scam.

Under a rotational chief ministership arrangement, Kumaraswamy became the chief minister and Yediyurappa his deputy.

Yediyurappa became the chief minister for the first time in November 2007 but his term in office lasted just seven days as Kumaraswamy reneged on a power sharing arrangement and walked out of the alliance.

He was made the chief minister once again after the BJP came to power in May 2008 but had to step down in July 2011 following his indictment by the then Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde in an illegal mining case.

In the 2008 polls, the Lingayat heavyweight led the party to victory, and the first BJP government in the south was formed under him.

Soon controversies swirled around Yediyurappa over alleged abuse of office to favour his sons in allotment of land in Bengaluru. The indictment by Lokayukta in an illegal mining scam was the last straw that broke the camels back, and he was forced to resign on July 31, 2011.

On October 15 that year, he surrendered before the Lokayukta court, after it issued a warrant against him in connection with alleged land scams, and was in jail for a week, dealing a body blow to the BJPs claim of being a party with a difference.

Sulking after having been made to quit, Yediyurappa broke his decades-long association with the saffron party and formed the Karnataka Janata Paksha.

However, ploughing a lonely furrow, he failed to make the KJP a force to reckon with in Karnataka politics but wrecked the BJP's chances of retaining power in the 2013 polls, winning six seats and polling about 10 per cent votes.

As Yeddyurppa faced an uncertain future and the BJP looked for a leader with a formidable reputation to lend its campaign the required heft ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the two cosied up to each other.

On January 9, 2014, Yediyurappa merged his KJP with the BJP.

In the Lok Sabha elections that followed, the BJP won 19 of the states 28 seats, a remarkable turnaround for the party which had secured a measly 19.9 per cent votes in the Assembly polls just a year ago leading to the fall of its first government.

Notwithstanding the taint of corruption, Yediyurappa's status and clout grew in the BJP.

On October 26, 2016, he got a huge relief when a special CBI court acquitted him, his two sons and son-in-law in a Rs 40 crore illegal mining case, which had cost him the chief ministership in 2011.

In January 2016, the Karnataka High Court quashed all 15 FIRs against Yediyurappa lodged by the Lokayukta police under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In April that year, he was appointed the state BJP chief for the fourth time.

The Lingayat leader, however, continued to be dogged by controversies, with the anti-corruption bureau launching proceedings against him in an alleged illegal land denotification case. He petitioned the high court, which stayed the ACB proceedings against him.

The taint of alleged corruption notwithstanding, the BJP declared him its chief ministerial candidate, ignoring the taunts by the Congress.

In 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats. Though the Congress and the JD(S) with 78 and 37 seats respectively made a surprise post poll alliance, the governor invited the BJP to form the government and Yediyurappa took oath as the chief minister for the third time.

However, he resigned in less than 48 hours after the government failed to win the trust vote. "If only they had given us 113 seats instead of 104 seats, we would have turned this state into paradise," he said in an emotionally charged speech after stepping down as the chief minister.

It remains to be seen whether Yediyurappa would be able to ace through the trust vote this time and provide a stable government in the state.

(With PTI inputs)