The BSY rebellion has brought old rivalries back to the fore in the ruling BJP with party general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar set to take over the mantle of numero uno in the ruling party. With no guarantee that Yeddyurappa would continue in the party for long, a large section of BJP legislators are lobbying hard to bring the Bengaluru south MP to the centre stage of state politics, said sources. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a highly placed source in the anti-BSY camp said, “Now it’s almost clear that Mr Yeddyurappa has made the decision to quit the party and has only made a strategic postponement. So, we are in the process of bringing Mr Kumar back to Karnataka, as his entry will ensure discipline among leaders in the state BJP. This is not a move to anoint him as CM in waiting replacing Mr Gowda."
A full fledged campaign to project Ananth as the heir apparent to BSY, will begin only after Yeddyurappa launches his planned state wide tour to elicit public opinion. “Most party leaders have veered round to the viewpoint that the BJP’s future course will have to be charted by four leaders - Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, BJP state president K.S. Eshwarappa, the Lingayat face of the party, Jagadish Shettar and Mr Kumar — to restore the loss of its voter base and the morale of party cadre,” the source explained. This will also help the party garner the support of four communities—Vokkaligas, Kurubas, Lingayats and Brahmins—which could make it invincible in the Assembly polls.
Mr Kumar had deliberately opted out of state politics after Yeddyurappa took charge as CM in 2008 but ironically, BSY himself has created a situation to allow the re-entry of his bete noire. “Mr Kumar is a Brahmin—a disadvantage in a state where politics is dominated by Vokkaliga and Lingayat leaders— but he knows how to build the party from the grassroots. It was due to his initiatives that leaders like public works minister C.M. Udasi, former CM late S. Bangarappa, Lingayat strongman M. Rajshekharmurthy and Dalit leaders like Govind Karjol and Ramesh Jigajinagi joined the party in 2004 which helped it boost its strength from a mere 40 seats to 79 after the polls that year,” the source said.
As part of the game-plan, party leaders have begun their homework by convening meetings without BSY and giving more prominence to Mr Shettar. “In the last two days, Mr Shettar is being invited to every important event— be it a meeting to discuss Council poll strategies or deliberate on party affairs. This is also to redress his grievance that he is being ignored by the CM and Eshwarappa. It is a fact that in the past, BSY would never allow a meeting to happen where he did not hold sway,” the source observed.