Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s first list of candidates for the Karnataka assembly elections, released on Tuesday, April 11, has sparked angry reactions across the state and has put the leadership in a fix.
After two senior leaders – K.S. Eshwarappa and Jagdish Shettar – reacted in contrasting ways to their ticket denial on Tuesday, Laxman Savadi, a former deputy chief minister, said on Wednesday that he has decided to quit the BJP and his position as an MLC because he was refused a ticket to fight from the Athani constituency in Belagavi district.
At a press meet, Savadi said he has decided to resign from the primary membership of the party. He added that he will take a “strong decision” on Thursday evening and will start working from Friday. The Lingayat leader is a three-time MLA from Athani but lost in the 2018 elections. In a surprise move, he was made one of the deputy CMs under B.S. Yediyurappa in 2019 when the latter formed the government following defection by 17 MLAs from the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular). He was appointed as an MLC.
The move to make Savadi a deputy CM was said to have been initiated by B.L. Santosh, the powerful national general secretary of the BJP. Santosh hails from Karnataka and acts as the bridge between the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS. At the time, it was criticised because Savadi was involved in the infamous ‘porngate’ incident of 2012.
Laxman Savadi (left) taking oath as deputy chief minister. Photo: PTI
In 2018, the Athani seat was won by Mahesh Kumtahalli, who was then in Congress. He was one of the 17 MLAs who defected to the BJP in 2019 and toppled the Congress-JD(S) coalition government. He resigned from Congress, contested from Athani again and won.
This time, Savadi demanded the Athani ticket but the party favoured the soft-spoken Mahesh. He was backed by Ramesh Jarkiholi, who – along with his brothers – is known to be a strongman of the Belagavi district. Jarkiholi fully threw his weight behind Mahesh, saying that if the latter was not given a ticket, he (Jarkiholi) too would not want the ticket from the Gokak constituency.
There is speculation that Savadi may switch over to the Congress. However, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar, asked about Savadi’s future, said, “He is neither in touch with me nor he has spoken with me.”
BJP faces heat
In the Gujarat assembly elections late last year, the BJP reaped great success by dropping close to 50 sitting MLAs. In Karnataka, it tried to adopt a curtailed model of this experiment and denied tickets to nine sitting MLAs. It introduced some 52 new faces out of 189 candidates in the first list for the May 10 polls.
To justify its decision, the party claimed that it has ensured social justice in the first list. “There are 32 OBCs, 7 Kurubas, 30 SCs and 16 STs in the list. We have ensured the best possible socially equitable distribution of tickets,” a party leader said.
However, it is facing heat from those who have been excluded.
Jagdish Shettar, a former chief minister, is the senior-most leader to rebel. Considering his seniority and mood, the leadership has asked him to come to New Delhi for talks. Whether the party high command will pacify the Lingayat leader from Hubli remains to be seen. Shettar, who was CM for less than a year in 2012-13, asked the party to inform him about the reason for denying him the ticket. “I have been elected six times, don’t have any black spots and worked throughout my political career for the BJP. So, what went wrong? I am 67 years old and I am fit to fight the election,” he had said.
On the other hand, even before the party released the list of candidates, sitting MLA Eshwarappa – a former minister – stated that he would no more contest elections. It was, however, widely known that the Kuruba (a prominent backward class) leader from south Karnataka would be denied a ticket as a contractor who died by suicide had blamed him in WhatsApp messages to his own friends. He was forced to resign as minister. Later, the state police gave him a clean chit in the suicide case.
Eshwarappa, who hails from Shivamogga city, has of late been demanding a ticket for his son Kanthesh and it remains to be seen if the party obliges him. Another senior party leader, Ayanur Manjunath, has been demanding the Shivamogga ticket for himself. The Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat is represented by B.Y. Raghavendra, son of Yediyurappa. The BJP has given Yediyurappa’s Shikaripura seat to his other son, B.Y. Vijayendra.
Former Karnataka minister K.S. Eshwarappa. Photo: facebook.
R. Shankar, who was denied the ticket for the Ranebennur seat in Haveri district, quit his MLC post and decided to contest as an independent. He was a minister in the H.D. Kumaraswamy government who also defected to the BJP in 2019. The BJP denied him a ticket to contest the bypolls but made him an MLC.
Minister for fisheries S. Angara, a six-time MLA from Sullia constituency in Dakshina Kannada district, was also denied a ticket. He stated that he will not campaign for the party.
Interestingly, the BJP has denied tickets to three other MLAs from the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. They are K. Raghupathi Bhat, Lalaji Mendon and Sanjeeva Matandoor.
Leader involved in hijab protests given ticket
Bhat has been replaced by Yashpal Suvarna, who is also the vice president of the Development Committee of Udupi Government PU Girls’ College where the protests over the wearing of hijab began last year. Suvarna, who belongs to the Mogaveera (fishermen) community of backward classes, had called the girls who challenged the hijab ban “terrorists” and was at the forefront of students being refused permission to wear scarfs in the classroom. Suvarna was earlier in the RSS, then in the Bajrang Dal and later joined the BJP.
BJP leader Yashpal Suvarna (right) with Amit Shah. Photo: Twitter/@YashpalBJP
Reacting to him being dropped, Bhat said he was sad that he was not informed about the party’s decision in advance. However, he said that he was happy that the party has recognised him for the work he has done so far.
Some others who were snubbed were also upset that they were not informed of their position in advance. “I came to know that I was denied a ticket through TV. Do I deserve this? Should not I be told in person? I was needed when the party had no hopes of attaining power. Now, when the party has power, people like me are not required,” one leader said.
However, despite the widespread anger of those who were denied tickets, the state BJP leadership has not taken any action to pacify the leaders. The party’s national president J.P. Nadda spoke to Shettar, who was asked to come to Delhi. What transpired between them was not known.
B.S. Arun is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru.