BENGALURU: While the BJP has taken great pains to deal with outgoing CM BS Yediyurappa’s supporters in the party, clearly informing them to maintain party discipline, the leadership may not have factored in the raw anger among Lingayats. Nor did it factor in the effect of Yediyurappa’s tears on the community.This anger was simmering for about a week, ever since talk began on Yediyurappa’s possible resignation, and it exploded on social media on Monday.
WhatsApp groups, Facebook and other social media posts by members of the community, especially the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, Basava Dala and other Lingayat groups, saw an outpouring of outrage and even abuse through the day, after Yediyurappa stepped down.
The Lingayats are an influential caste group in Karnataka, forming a sizeable majority in 124 seats and accounting for 16-17% of the population. There are over 4,000 Lingayat mutts and about 100 mutts wield wide influence. Supporters of these mutts displayed anger and indignation that Yediyurappa was handed a raw deal, when he had battled Covid and floods effectively. That he was having to step down due to his age was another bugbear.
“Was Yediyurappa not already 75 when he was projected as the CM face in 2018, when he was given a mandate for 5 years, how can they force him to resign?’’ wrote one angry supporter. Their other argument was that when the BJP had projected Metro Man E Sreedharan, who is 89 years old, as chief ministerial candidate for Kerala, how can it ask Yediyurappa to step down when he is only 78 years old.
Some supporters contended that Yediyurappa was not being consulted on his successor, which is the least the central leadership can do. “It is not a BJP government but a coalition that Yediyurappa worked on carefully for 14 months before getting 17 MLAs to resign and forming the government, now they have shown him the door,’’ said one supporter.
Political analyst B S Murthy concurred that the Lingayat anger is still an unknown quantity. “It appears that the BJP’s assessment of BS Yediyurappa’s exit revolves around party legislators and cadres who they assume would support the party regardless of the outcome, but it may have misjudged the raw anger among voters, especially community members spread over Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra.’’
Angry members of the community said the time to express this anger is during the 2023 and 2024 elections. They recalled grimly that a Lingayat holds the key to power: when a Lingayat was projected as CM in the Congress in 1989, the party won 175 seats, and when a Lingayat leader was removed, it won only 34 seats.