BENGALURU: After weighing the pros and cons, the BJP national leadership appointed former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa's son and first-time MLA BY Vijayendra as the party's Karnataka state president ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The new president also has the task of cooperating with the JD(S), especially in the old Mysuru region, which is forging an alliance with the BJP in the polls.
BJP national president JP Nadda in an order on Friday appointed Vijayendra with immediate effect following which the party's national general secretary Arun Singh made an official announcement. Though his tenure has not been mentioned, he is likely to be the president for at least three years or until the next order of the party high command. Vijayendra is considered the political heir of the undisputed leader of the Veerashaiva Lingayat community B S Yediyurappa.
With the state president being a member of the dominant Veerashaiva Lingayat community, the party high command is likely to consider a leader from either the Vokkaliga community or the backward classes for the post of leader of the opposition in the Karnataka assembly.
Yediyurappa wanted a big break for his son in the form of a cabinet berth in the then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's government only to be denied. But he did not give up and continued to lobby for his son's political future and ultimately got him the party's state president post.
"In one shot, B S Yediyurappa hit many birds as he ensured that no other leader in the community was at the helm of affairs in the state and now the leader of opposition post is likely to go to a member of another community," observed a political pundit, adding that Vijayendra could be the successor of Yediyurappa as the community's leader.
It may be noted that a section of leaders of the Veerashaiva Lingayat community including former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and former DCM Laxman Savadi quit the BJP and joined the Congress ahead of the May 2023 assembly polls. That helped the Congress to some extent and was one of the factors for the BJP's drubbing as it could only win 66 seats.
The move to appoint Vijayendra is likely to be a morale booster for the party's rank and file, especially the followers of Yediyurappa. "Like his father, he is on good terms with most of the Veerashaiva Lingayat community, religious institutions and their heads, which may help him," observed a political analyst.
As for the party's future, it depends on how he takes along other leaders and galvanises support from different corners including rivals of Yediyurappa within the BJP in Karnataka.
The 47-year-old Shikaripura MLA Vijayendra will replace Nalin Kumar Kateel whose term of three years as the state president came to an end a year ago.
Now, with Vijayendra's elevation from the vice president post to the president, his father is likely to engage himself in the party's organisation more effectively by embarking upon a statewide tour ahead of the Lok Sabha polls slated for April-May. The outcome of the polls in which the BJP is aiming to retain the 25 seats it won in the 2019 polls will decide the mettle of the party's new president.