Born in an ordinary family with humble economic backgrounds and with no ‘politically illustrious’ names among his kin, Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa has evolved as a popular leader on the basis of his sheer perseverance, zealous efforts, untiring hard work and genuine commitment and concern for the common man.
As described by his close friends, party leaders and workers, he is proactive 24x7. He is indeed a genuine people’s leader in the real sense of the word. It is only because of Yediyurappa’s meticulous planning, approach and sincere efforts that BJP in Karnataka evolved as a ‘cadre-based mass party’ and has come to power with him as chief minister.
He ensured that the party is strengthened, geographically and socially. It is the result of his untiring efforts that BJP – which was once dismissed as urban-based, intellectually-confined, upper-caste North-Indian Party – came to power twice by drawing strength from all section of society, especially farmers. There are many leaders in Karnataka BJP, but for all of us, the way shown by Yediyurappa is the model.
BJP came into existence on April 6, 1980. We came to power for the first time in 2008. For these 28 years, we expanded our electoral base, strengthened the party at various rungs of social setup, enthused our cadre and took up people’s issues to carve a niche for ourselves. Yediyurappa’s firm conviction was that BJP should maintain equidistance from both Congress and Janata Parivar in the tri-polar polity in Karnataka. He ensured that BJP takes up people’s issues and fight the elections without having any truck with any party, except in 1999.
I can assert that BJP’s victory in 2008 and 2018 is not a mere fluke. The victory is due to the service and sacrifice of lakhs of workers and thousands of leaders since the days of Jana Sangh and Yediyurappa continued that tradition of struggling for the people’s cause.All the leaders at the national level have been observing the manner in which Yediyurappa has enabled BJP to come to power in Karnataka. We are all immensely impressed by his inputs to strengthen the party when he was working as the national vice-president of the party. I am fortunate to have worked with him closely during that tenure.
I was appointed as prabhari (in-charge) of Karnataka by the party’s central leadership. I got an opportunity to closely observe how Yediyurappa handled organisational and governmental matters in a professional and deft manner. India and the world faced an unprecedented crisis in the form of Covid. Karnataka did exceptionally well in handling the crisis under the dynamic and robust leadership of Yediyurappa.
It was Yediyurappa who decided to announce lockdown of all cinema theatres, malls, shopping complex as a first step in our fight against coronavirus. He thought of ways to fight the virus and galvanised the official machinery up to hobli level, planned meticulously and enthused the party cadre to supplement the government’s efforts.
Yediyurappa showed political acumen and magnanimity when several MLAs from Congress and JDS decided to quit their respective parties by admitting them to BJP by taking the Central leadership into confidence. The fine balance he has struck in managing the needs of the newcomers and old-timers shows his sense of professionalism and fair approach. February 27 is Yediyurappa’s birthday. As he has said earlier, he is determined to bring BJP back to power in 2023 Assembly elections with not less than 150 seats. I am confident that this is going to become a reality. BJP will return to power solely because of a positive vote on account of remarkable performance of the government.