Fissures in central BJP keep Karnataka pot boiling

The Karnataka BJP has traditionally been known to have two camps,one led by Yeddyurappa and other by Ananth Kumar. While Ananth has always been close to L K Advani,the present Chief Minister is known to be pretty much his own man. It was Yeddyurappa who made the BJP a brand in rural Karnataka and is probably the only BJP chief minister today who has repeatedly said that he’s not interested in spreading his wings outside Karnataka. Owing to the Advani-Rajnath rivalry,Rajnath Singh threw his lot behind Yeddyurappa once he took over as the party president.

Yeddyurappa’s campaign for the Assembly elections last year was a lesson in the art of political management. Leading from the front,Yeddyurappa criss-crossed the state,and connected with the people on their local needs and aspirations. His election speeches,for instance,would be markedly different in northern districts of the state from what they would be in southern districts,or urban centres like Bangalore . He thus best symbolised BJPs’ vision of a “federal setup” in various states where its chief ministers represented the face of the party.

Yeddyurappa’s stunning victory in May 2008,however,only ended up widening the chasm in the BJP’s top leadership. While Ananth Kumar’s say in state politics got considerably reduced,Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj vied for “credit” for ensuring the party’s victory. Jaitley oversaw the overall campaign,while Sushma was a much-in-demand star speaker,who often spoke in Kannada — something that she picked up in Bellary in 1999 when she contested the Lok Sabha election against Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

After Yeddyurappa had formed a government,it was the Reddy brothers who recently employed their vast resources to win over rival legislators in what has now come to be known as “Operation Kamal”.

In running his government,Yeddyurappa,meanwhile,heavily depended on two ministers — V S Acharya,an old RSS hand,and one of the first to have emerged as a BJP leader from Udupi; and Shobha Karandlaje,a woman BJP legislator with an RSS background,said to be extremely active in organisational affairs too.

The Lok Sabha seat of Bellary,with which Sushma has maintained her emotional bond after a heroic fight in the 1999 election against Sonia Gandhi,became a reserved seat after delimitation in 2009,and was won by J Shantha.