A MASS LEADER, seven-time MLA, Lingayat strongman and a former chief minister, Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa nurtures a single dream—to become the chief minister of Karnataka once again. His dream was within reach last May when the BJP, under his leadership, bagged 104 of 224 seats in the assembly polls. But, the party fell short of nine seats for a clear majority and he stepped down within three days of taking oath as chief minister. His multiple bids at Operation Kamala—poaching MLAs from the opposition camp to prop up a BJP government—too failed. His desperation has now led to a political catastrophe. Owing to an audio clip that reportedly proves the BJP’s attempts in horse trading, Yeddyurappa finds himself in a legal knot.
At 75, Yeddyurappa thinks this may be his last shot at chief ministership. Age factor apart, party colleagues, too, may work against him in the future. What perhaps fuels his chief ministerial ambitions is regret. While he established the first BJP government in the south in 2008, winning 110 of 224 assembly seats, he could not finish his term as he was indicted in the illegal mining scam and for illegally profiting from land deals. He earned the disrepute of becoming the first sitting chief minister to be jailed on corruption charges. In 2012, he quit the BJP to float the Karnataka Janata Paksha. He, however, returned to the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and won the Shivamogga parliamentary seat by a huge margin. And, the BJP won 17 of 28 seats.
In April 2016, Yeddyurappa was made the state president by BJP national president Amit Shah. Despite the Lingayat movement fuelled by the previous Congress regime headed by Siddaramaiah, Yeddyurappa’s popularity helped keep the BJP’s Lingayat vote bank intact in the 2018 assembly polls. But, to keep the BJP at bay, the Congress joined hands with its arch-rival—the Janata Dal (Secular)—and offered the chief minister’s chair to H.D. Kumaraswamy.
But, the growing rift between the coalition partners revived Yeddyurappa hopes. The BJP’s Operation Kamala was exposed after it kept its MLAs in a resort in Gurugram in January, even as rebel Congress MLAs checked into a Mumbai hotel. The Congress then took its remaining MLAs to a resort outside Bengaluru. While Yeddyurappa and his men had got seven rebels into their fold, they needed seven more for majority in the assembly. So, they tried to lure Gurmitkal MLA Naganagouda Kandkur of the JD(S). But, they were outsmarted by Kandkur’s son Sharanagouda. A Kumaraswamy loyalist, he recorded the conversation.
During a press meet on February 8, Kumaraswamy released an audio clip, where Yeddyurappa purportedly offered 025 lakh to Sharanagouda and a ministerial berth to his father. While Yeddyurappa had earlier dismissed the clip as fake, he later admitted that it was his voice in the clip but said that the clip was doctored. But what has shaken him is assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar ordering a probe by a special investigation team.
In the audio clip, Yeddyurappa reportedly said that a Rs50 crore deal had been struck with Kumar to facilitate the resignation of rebel MLAs. Kumar, who had initially said that he knew Yeddyurappa well and that the voice in the clip was not his, later told the house that he would prefer an SIT probe to a judicial inquiry or an investigation by the privileges or house committee. “I am setting a deadline of 15 days for the probe and I don’t favour any other probe as they are all long-drawn-out processes,” he said. “I cannot carry this blemish, this dustbin on my head endlessly. I want immediate reprieve. I am unable to face my wife and children and my elder brother.”
While the Congress welcomed the SIT probe, the BJP has vehemently opposed it, fearing political witch-hunt by the coalition government. Party insiders said that the BJP wants the speaker to reverse or modify his order. The BJP is aiming for 20 of 28 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and cannot afford to go through a criminal investigation at this juncture. The saffron party, in turn, has filed a criminal complaint against Kumaraswamy after coming to know of the “plot to tarnish” the reputation of Yeddyurappa and the BJP.
Moreover, the BJP blamed the infighting in the Congress and a lack of coordination among the allies for the ongoing political turmoil and rebellion. The Congress has been struggling to keep its flock together. Despite the party issuing a whip to all its members to attend the Congress Legislature Party meetings and the ongoing budget session, four rebels—Ramesh Jarkiholi, Umesh Jadhav, Mahesh Kumathalli and B. Nagendra—are still holed up in a Mumbai hotel. CLP leader Siddaramaiah petitioned the speaker to disqualify the four rebels under the anti-defection law, after they failed to turn up for the session.
But, the audio clip controversy has given the Congress and the JD(S) enough ammunition to attack the BJP’s central leadership. Kumaraswamy dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take action against his party leaders. “Modi, who preaches about democracy, is encouraging his party men to demolish democracy by luring and intimidating ruling party MLAs. Will Modi show his real face? He stands exposed by his own men today,” said Kumaraswamy, claiming that BJP members in the clip had also boasted of support from the speaker, Modi, Shah and certain judges to topple the coalition.
Modi, who launched the Lok Sabha election campaign in Hubballi on February 10, chose to steer clear of the controversy, instead attacking the Kumaraswamy-led government. “The chief minister is like a punching bag for the Congress and is running a majboor (helpless) government. Only the BJP can give you a majboot (stable) government,” he said.
Operation Kamala, said party insiders, would continue till the Lotus blooms in the state. Yeddyurappa’s strained equation with the party’s central leadership, too, will not be a dampener, as he still wields immense clout in the dominant Lingayat community and is indispensable to the party in a crucial election.