In a coup of sorts, the BJP managed to get former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar back into its fold, leaving the ruling Congress leaders in Karnataka stunned. It took the edge off Congress’s efforts to win back the support of the dominant Lingayat community voters in the North Karnataka region and gave a big boost to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Congress has many strong Lingayat leaders, but former CM and Lingayat leader Shettar would have added more strength to its efforts to dent BJP’s Lingayat support base. Congress lost that opportunity.
Getting Shettar back into its fold seemed to be part of the BJP’s larger game plan to reconsolidate its Lingayat support base, and more importantly, not let the Congress gain any advantage on that front. It also helped the party send a message to the fence-sitters to reconsider their decision to jump ship ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
The latest development yet again showed that the BJP is willing to go any distance to put its Lingayat strategy into play. The party’s Lingayat strongman and former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa is a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body in the party, since August 2022. His son and the party MLA BY Vijayendra was appointed BJP state president in November last year.
They appear to be totally in control of the party affairs in Karnataka with the full backing of the central leadership, which is ironing out any challenges in implementing the party strategy on the ground.
The party’s central leaders held talks with former minister and veteran Lingayat leader from South Karnataka, V Somanna, and assuaged him. He was openly airing his views against the state leadership.
The BJP managed to put a lid on MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal’s tirade against his party state leaders. The former Union Minister and Lingayat leader from Vijayapura went ballistic with his allegations against Yediyurappa and Vijayendra. It often caused major embarrassment to the BJP and gave enough ammo to the Congress to fire at the BJP leadership. It is not clear how the party handled the firebrand leader and how long will the truce last.
The state leadership has taken another vocal Lingayat leader MLA Aravind Bellad into confidence by making him Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly. R Ashoka, a Vokkaliga leader from Bengaluru, is the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.
Shettar, who was CM from July 2012 to May 2013, had left BJP and joined Congress ahead of the May 10, 2023, assembly polls after he was denied a ticket to contest assembly elections from the Hubli-Dharwad Central seat. He contested as a Congress candidate and lost to BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai by a margin of 35,000 votes. The BJP had put all its might to defeat Shettar in that election.
After coming to power Congress made him MLC and appeared to have taken him for granted. Congress leaders’ reactions to his exit from the party showed that they were either clueless about the goings-on in their party or were not interested in making any efforts to retain him.
Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress president DK Shivakumar’s response indicated both when he expressed surprise over the development and played it down by claiming that it will not have any bearing on the party’s prospects.
Shettar’s exit may prompt Congress leadership to rethink its Lingayat strategy and consider elevating a community leader as Deputy CM. For now, the party has ruled out the possibility of making more DyCMs, despite the demand from its ministers. Nimble-footed teams that modify their strategies to suit the changing requirements of the game will have an advantage over their competitors. That is true even in politics.
If Shettar’s episode was not enough to jolt Congress, in a surprising development, veteran Congress leader and All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha president Shamanur Shivashankarappa openly supported Shivamogga BJP MP BY Raghavendra. He even asked voters to back Yediyurappa’s son Raghavendra in the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP is betting big on the Lingayat factor in the state, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership remains the single biggest factor for the party in the Lok Sabha polls. The party will depend on its alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular) to woo Vokkaliga voters in the Old Mysuru region.
Congress will be depending heavily on Siddaramaiah-DK Shivakumar’s leadership and seek votes on the state government’s performance, especially the implementation of guarantee schemes. But, given the rumblings within the I.N.D.I.A bloc, the challenges for local Congress leadership are only growing as BJP appears to have succeeded in setting a narrative around ‘Modi vs who?’