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Yediyurappa vacates BJP seat for son, fans retirement buzz
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said that Yediyurappa “neither retires nor is tired”.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa announced on Friday that his second son, BY Vijayendra, will contest from his bastion Shikaripura in Shivamogga district, casting doubts over his future in active politics.
“We will work exceeding our strength, and I request you to give your full cooperation to Vijayendra the same way you did for me. You should make him win with a margin of over 1 lakh, and it would be a befitting fulfilment to all the service we have done,” Yediyurappa said in Shikaripura, about 300 km from Bengaluru.
Yediyurappa turned 79 this February and will be 80 by the 2023 assembly elections, which goes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unwritten rule that anyone above 75 should not hold an administrative post. Despite this rule, Yediyurappa was projected as the chief ministerial candidate in 2017 by then BJP national president Amit Shah as the party continues to be heavily reliant on the Lingayat strongman, possibly just one of two mass leaders in the state. The other was the opposition leader, Siddaramaiah.
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said that Yediyurappa “neither retires nor is tired”.
“He has not said political retirement anywhere. According to me, Yediyurappa, neither he retires nor is he tired. (He is a) relentless crusader and there is no question of him retiring at all. All other issues I will discuss with him. Day before also, this issue was not discussed. Once I go to Bengaluru, I will discuss this with him,” Bommai said.
The chief minister added that Yediyurappa’s strenght and guidance will remain with the party in the coming elections.
People aware of the developments also said that this should not be looked at as ‘retirement’ as Yediyurappa will remain active and help build the party in the state.
“No one from the party told him to take this step, but he has done it on his own. When there is a rule that no one above 75 will be given a ticket, it wouldn’t look nice if he asked to contest again,” said one person directly aware of the developments, requesting anonymity.
According to the above-cited people, the BJP will have little choice but to depend on Yediyurappa to return to power as his influence over the Lingayat community, believed to be the single largest caste group in the state accounting for around 15-17%, is unparalleled.
In 1972, at 29, Yediyurappa was elected as the president of Shikaripura Taluk Jana Sangha and entered public life. He was later elected as a councillor in the same Taluka in 1975 and was even jailed for 45 days during the emergency period. He became the secretary of the Janata Party in 1977 and later became the taluka level president of the BJP in 1980. He first entered the assembly in 1983 (along with Siddaramaiah). He lost just once in 1999 out of the nine times he contested from Shivamogga district, including one stint in the Parliament in 2014 before returning to state politics. He was elected to the legislative council in 2000 and remained in the upper house till 2004.
Yediyurappa is a record four-term chief minister of Karnataka, with at least two stints lasting less than a week. Yediyurappa, who led the BJP to form its first ever government in southern India in 2008, has also never completed a full term in office.
Yediyurappa was forced to step down from the chief minister’s chair in July last year, and the former put forth the name of Basavaraj Bommai, believed to be a close confidante.
Yediyurappa’s older son, BY Raghavendra, is the MP from Shivamogga and Vijayendra is currently the BJP state vice president.
