They were Reddy but much too hasty for steady Shettar

Checkmated by his long-time rival in the party,B S Yeddyurappa,and shunted to play the role of Speaker against the grain of his personal ambitions,it is also no secret that the 53-year-old,amiable leader has been biding his time.

When the opportunity knocked around October 28 this year in the form of a rebellion within the BJP government against the diktats of Yeddyurappa,and the rebel Reddy group landed at his doorstep begging him to be their leader,Shettar clearly did not say no.

With his long-nursed ambition,his origins in a town considered the heartland of the RSS and the BJP in Karnataka,his lineage from founding fathers of the Jan Sangh,his caste by birth — Lingayat like Yeddyurappa but from a sub-sect considered stronger across north Karnataka — and the fire of his dissent,Shettar was considered ripe for the picking by the rebels who lacked an amenable,senior enough leader in a man-for-man CM swap.

A long-term association with his fellow Hubli townsman and senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar also seemed to hold Shettar in good stead to be the replacement chief minister.

Trying his best to maintain the dignity of the office of the Speaker,Shettar manoeuvred silently in the shadows cast by the rebellion and did not utter a word in public about his role in it,but managed to be always central to it.

Referred to popularly as Ajaatshatru in north Karnataka,the Lingayat heartland,where he was,until Yeddyurappa’s ascendance to the Chief Minister’s post,the foremost BJP leader,Shettar has strong founding roots in the Sangh Parivar. His uncle Sadashiv Shettar was the first Jan Sangh member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly,elected from Hubli in 1967,and his father S S Shettar was the first Jan Sangh mayor of Hubli.

Shettar himself,a lawyer by profession,is now a three-time BJP MLA from Hubli. He was the leader of the Opposition between 1999 and 2004 and was a minister for revenue in the JD(S)-BJP government between 2006 and 2007.

However,after enjoying an upper hand in his rivalry with Yeddyurappa until 2006,Shettar began losing the edge after the latter forged the alliance with the JD(S).

Yeddyurappa also became the undisputed chief ministerial candidate of the BJP for the 2008 polls on account of the sympathy generated in the Lingayat community in his favour after the JD(S) dumped him.

Since becoming the Chief Minister,Yeddyurappa has sidelined the main threat to his chair by keeping him out of the ministry — this,in fact,resulted in violence in Hubli last year — and sidelining all of Shettar’s supporters.

Shettar thought his chance had come when the rebellion against Yeddyurappa broke out a fortnight ago.

In the end things did not work out to plan in the rebellion as the BJP central leadership and the RSS nipped the bid to replace Yeddyurappa despite huge concessions made to the rebel group — including the carrot of a ministerial berth for Shettar.

Shettar,who had travelled to New Delhi to meet senior BJP leaders at the height of the crisis,returned seemingly deflated and withdrew briefly from public view.

BJP sources said the rebels erred in publicly projecting the Reddy brothers at the frontline to oust Yeddyurappa rather than Shettar himself. Shettar’s reluctance to remain at the frontline of the Reddy brothers rebellion is said to have also put the shutters on the rebellion itself.

Sources say Shettar is now not inclined to immediately join the government but would rather wait for the heat from the dissidence to dissipate before being inducted alongside a few of his supporters. But he is expected to gain back some control in north Karnataka as the rebel Reddy group has demanded more powers in the region on his behalf.

Meanwhile,he is back to biding his time…