BENGALURU: Even as some Veerashaiva Lingayat community leaders in the BJP sulked over the appointment of former chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra, those from the Vokkaliga and other communities appear reconciled, keeping in mind their future political endeavours.
With a faction of BJP’s Veerashaiva Lingayat community leaders, led by former minister V Somanna, expected to call on the party high command in the national capital with a ‘complaint’ in the first week of December, Vokkaliga leaders and those from other communities seem to have patched up with Vijayendra.
The leaders, including former national general secretary C T Ravi, who had raised the issue of dynasty politics, have come to terms with the appointment. Ravi, who gave the event a miss when Vijayendra assumed office as president, called on the latter recently and discussed political developments. On Sunday, the duo shared the dais at the Constitution Day event in the party office, and sent a message that they are united ahead of the 2024 LS polls.
The reason for Vokkaliga leaders not to go against Vijayendra is that the combination of Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva Lingayats worked for them in the polls in the past, and is likely to help them in the forthcoming polls.
Even SC/ST leaders, including Govind Karjol and B Sriramulu, had no qualms about Vijayendra’s appointment as they too were in need of Veerashaiva-Lingayat community backing, especially Yediyurappa’s support in the polls, observed political pundits.
“Ravi lost the Chikkamagaluru assembly seat to the Congress candidate from the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, because he was branded as being averse to the community and the Yediyurappa family. Hence, he no longer wanted to antogonise them,” a BJP leader said.
But senior leader and former minister Aravind Limbavali, who hails from an SC community, continued to raise issues against the Yediyurappa family, he remarked. Somanna claimed that Limbavali and another former minister and ST leader Ramesh Jarkiholi will also be part of a delegation he is taking to high command. Interestingly, Ramesh had patched up with Vijayendra, and it is to be seen whether he will back Somanna or not.