The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s decision to deny tickets to some senior leaders has stirred the pot in Karnataka ahead of this year’s Lok Sabha elections, bolstering voices of dissent within its ranks.
Some of the disgruntled leaders have threatened to fight the elections as Independent candidates, causing a degree of unease in the party that won 25 of the 28 seats in the southern state five years ago. The BJP state leadership has said they are in talks with dissidents to pacify them, even though political analysts say the perceived discord might not hurt the party much. While the BJP is eyeing a repeat of its stellar 2019 performance, the state’s ruling Congress party is confident of its prospects. Karnataka will vote in two phases on April 26 and May 4, and results will be out on June 4.
From Bengaluru to Tumakuru to Shimoga and Belagavi, leaders who were expecting to be renominated as BJP picks or considered for the list, appear upset at the denial of tickets. They are now expressing their disappointment; some have even gone to the extent of talking of “purifying the BJP” from the “clutches of dynastic politics” — an indirect reference to former chief minister BS Yediyurappa (BSY), who denies all charges against him.
Karadi Sanganna Amarappa, BJP MP from Kolar, is among the latest to join the rebellious bandwagon by announcing his desire to contest as an Independent candidate, just like senior BJP leader and former deputy Chief Minister KS Eshwarappa. Karadi was dropped, and Basavaraj Kyavater was named the BJP candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls instead.
JC Madhuswamy, former Karnataka law minister and a BJP leader from Tumakuru who faced electoral defeat in the Chikkanayakanahalli seat in the 2023 Assembly polls, was hoping to get a Lok Sabha ticket from Tumakuru. With V Somanna being named as the official candidate from the seat, Madhuswamy has refused to back Somanna’s campaign.
After local BJP karyakartas protested against Udupi-Chikkamgalur MP Shobha Karandlaje in her constituency with “Go Back” slogans, now posters saying “Go Back Shettar” have begun doting Belagavi, with local BJP leaders expressing displeasure over Jagadish Shettar’s defection to the Congress and then U-turn to the BJP. Shettar, former chief minister of the state, is speculated to be the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for the Belagavi seat. The party has so far announced its picks for 267 seats. Rest of the candidates, including its pick for Belagavi, are expected in the upcoming BJP lists.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, six-time MLA Shettar, who was asked to step aside by the BJP high command during selection of candidates for the Hubballi-Dharwad seat, jumped ship to the Congress. The Congress gave him a ticket from the seat, but Shettar lost the election. He was later made an MLC. However, nine months later, Shettar rejoined the BJP, which, he claimed, was a decision based on his supporters forcing him to return. Sections of the local BJP leadership consider Shettar “an outsider in Belagavi”, leading the “Go Back”
Another former chief minister, Sadananda Gowda, has announced that rumours about him jumping ship to the Congress are unfounded and said that he would rather stay in the BJP and “purify it”.
“There is a need for purification of the Karnataka BJP unit,” said Gowda WHEN, taking a veiled dig at BJP Parliamentary Board member Yediyurappa amid allegations of the senior leader calling the shots on ticket selection in Karnataka.
“Those who are responsible for the state unit have now become selfish. It has become common word amongst people that the BJP is under the control of one person, his children, family members and their ‘chelas’ (followers). There is a need to rid the party of such kind of control and a major step is needed for this kind of purification to bring an end to nepotism,” Gowda told reporters.
Gowda was expecting to be nominated as the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for the Bengaluru North seat. But the party announced Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje as its pick. While the state BJP unit has been trying to pacify the leader by offering him the Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha seat, Gowda appears to be in no mood to accept the peace of
Former deputy chief minister and popular OBC leader Eshwarappa has decided to join hands with his once-close friend Gowda and has vowed to “fight against the dynasty politics that is being seen in the present Karnataka BJP under the leadership of BSY’s son BY Vijayendra.”
A leader with deep-rooted Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) values, Eshwarappa had long been known as a close associate of BSY as they played a pivotal role in building the BJP in Karnataka and bringing the party to power for the first time in the state — thus, opening the national party’s first southern account.
With inputs from News18