SHIVAMOGGA: Former chief minister and veteran BJP leader BS Yediyurappa has hinted at his retirement from electoral politics by announcing that his younger son and the party’s state vice president BY Vijayendra will contest the 2023 assembly elections from Shikaripura constituency which the former has been representing since 1983 except in 1999.
Speaking to the media after offering ‘Bagina’ to Anjanapura dam in Shikaripura taluk on Friday, he said, “I request the people of Shikaripura to ensure the victory of Vijayendra by a huge margin, even bigger than what I had secured.”
He said his supporters are pressuring him to field Vijayendra from the old Mysuru region. Reacting to Yediyurappa’s statement, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who is on a visit to Delhi, said, “Yediyurappa will neither retire nor is he tired. He is a relentless fighter.”
Asked about BSY’s decision not to contest elections any more, Bommai said, “Yediyurappa would always be with the BJP. He has his own importance. Party top brass are aware of his importance.” Bommai said though he met him on Thursday, “this issue did not come up for discussion”.
Yediyurappa will guide BJP: CM
Bommai said he will meet BSY and talk to him. Asked if Yediyurappa will retire, he said in the coming polls, BJP will have Yediyurappa’s guidance.He said Yediyurappa is like a father figure and the central leaders know it. Vijayendra said his father will not be active in electoral politics but will continue to strengthen the party. “Retirement is a word which does not exist in my father’s dictionary. When he resigned from CM’s post, he had pledged to work to bring BJP back to power once again for which he will campaign,” he said.
When Yediyurappa broke away from the party in 2013, BJP managed to win only 40 seats. Now with just nine months left for 2023 polls, Yediyurappa’s announcement of quitting electoral politics has surprised many. Sources said people are taken aback as Yediyurappa who tried to get his son Vijayendra into the cabinet failed to make him even an MLC.
Shikaripura has been his stronghold since 1983 from where he won for the first time by defeating Congress candidate K Yankannappa. He went on to retain the seat till Congress candidate Mahalingappa defeated him in 1999. As he contested Lok Sabha polls in 2014, he vacated the seat for his elder son Raghavendra who won the bypoll. BSY again won in 2018.