Karnataka may have a new chief minister. The rebellion in the BJP may have fizzled out. But the change of guard in the state is an ominous sign, and raises the question: will a weak BJP give in every time a regional leader throws a tantrum? The only man laughing all the way to the bank in the aftermath of this less than edifying spectacle is former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. While the BJP leadership may believe it was politic to douse the fires in Karnataka by replacing D.V. Sadananda Gowda with former Speaker Jagadish Shettar rather than risk a confrontation in the run-up to Assembly elections in less than a year, Karnataka strongman BSY has demonstrated that he is by far the cannier adversary. The very man the BJP top brass built up as leader of the majority Lingayat community has learnt to trade on that very cachet to his advantage.
Indeed, Mr Yeddyurappa is showing the same kind of inflexibility that was displayed by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who pushed BJP president Nitin Gadkari into jettisoning a seasoned apparatchik like Sanjay Joshi from the top echelons of the party before he deigned to return to the fold.
Mr Yeddyurappa’s stature in the party stemmed from winning the BJP its first saffron government in southern India four years ago. But on several counts, it allowed the man who is supported by all religious “maths” but curiously not so much by the RSS or party patriarch L.K. Advani, a very long rope. It turned a blind eye when he used fair means and foul to augment the BJP’s numbers through Operation Lotus, where legislators were “poached” from other parties to beef up its numbers in the Assembly. It did the same when the mine-rich Reddy brothers disbursed favours and brazenly demanded their pound of flesh. When a slew of corruption charges were laid at Mr Yeddyurappa’s door, the BJP’s hard-won reputation of being a “party with a difference” was lying in tatters.
With Mr Yeddyurappa at the receiving end of intensive grilling by CBI investigators — Saturday’s session ran into six long hours — there is a sense of overwhelming disappointment across Karnataka at this shambolic governance delivered by the state’s BJP government.
The lesson then for Ashoka Road must be this — while it may have allowed Mr Yeddyurappa his way on replacing one puppet with another, they must ensure that Mr Jagadish Shettar, duly inducted as “Mr Nice Guy 2”, meets the rising expectations of the people. And that Mr Yeddyurappa does not indulge in another bout of musical chairs if Mr Shettar does a Sadananda Gowda and falls from favour. This must be as far as it goes.