BENGALURU: Despite rumblings within the state unit and speculations of a shift in guards, BJP is in no position to replace its current state president B S Yeddyurappa.
Party insiders and analysts believe that not only does the party not have an alternative to Yeddyurappa — in terms of popularity and leadership — but it also doesn’t have the need for a change in leadership, at least till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Despite the drubbing BJP received in the bypolls to two assembly and three parliamentary seats in Karnataka, and despite attempts by Yeddyurappa baiters within the party to hold him accountable for the results, the senior leadership of the BJP believes that the former Chief Minister is the party’s best bet yet in run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
“Those who accuse Yeddyurappa of losing four out of five bypoll seats conveniently forget that he won 104 seats in the assembly polls. He is not just a Lingayat leader but a farmer icon and people of all communities have come to accept him,” said a BJP MP from Karnataka. While Amit Shah is said to have rapped Yeddyurappa for the party’s mishap in Ramanagara where the candidate withdrew from polls and joined Congress, the senior leadership is throwing its weight behind the Lingayat leader and some of it largely because they have no choice.
R Ashok is being viewed by some as the next BJP chief but given the JD(S)-Congress alliance and the tilted Vokkaliga votes in favour of JD(S) patriarch H D Devegowda, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Congress leader D K Shivakumar, the saffron party may have very little to gain by making a Vokkaliga its chief. In fact, Lingayats, who shifted loyalties to the Congress in the Ballari bypolls after ST leader B Sriramulu’s projection as the next big thing in the BJP, will be a displeased lot if the party chooses to replace Yeddyurappa.
“To understand the significance of Yeddyurappa in Karnataka all one needs to do is to look at the results of 2013 assembly polls. The KJP’s ‘one-man’ army performance against the entire BJP’s performance and the numbers will make any party leadership shiver,” said A Narayana, political analyst.
He added that the BJP brought Yeddyurappa for a reason and the party is unlikely to risk offending an entire community by replacing him just months ahead of elections. Moreover, the possibility of a divided BJP yet again is something the party would like to keep at bay especially in the face of a united JD(S)-Congress.
While baiters hope to hold Yeddyurappa responsible for the loss in bypolls, leaders of the party highlight how the Lingayat man won 104 seats in the assembly polls for the BJP. Moreover, when Lok Sabha elections take away the time and resources of national leaders of the BJP, including Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, the absence of Yeddyurappa will mean lack of a strong leader to steer the party in Karnataka that has consistently given BJP double digit seats in Lok Sabha polls.