BJP sweeps bye-elections in Karnataka

B S YEDIYURAPPA: DECCAN’S TALLEST SAFFRON LEADER

- S. A. HEMANTH

Karnataka is known for defyingnational conventions. If thenation-wide voting trend is for national parties, then the people have chosen regional formations in the past. This has happened many times in the past. Karnataka BJP too seems to have caught up with its trend vis-avis its units in other states. While then other states, most of the leaders who quit their respective parties and joined the BJP bit the dust whereas in

BJP’s performance in some parts of the country has not been as much impressive as it was expected, the saffron party in this part of Deccan defied its convention and won 12 out of the 15 Assembly seats in the by-elections held on December 5.

In other states, most of the leaders who quit their respective parties and joined the BJP bit the dust whereas in Karnataka 12 out of 15 who quit Congress and JDS to join BJP won the elections. This almost-near-impossible feat was achieved largely due to the towering personality and charismatic leadership of chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa. The BJP, as an organisation, too contributed in its own way to push the party’s prospects.

With this phenomenal success, Yediyrappa, once again proved, that he is not only a pan-Karnataka mass leader but the tallest saffron leader of the Deccan Plateau.

The wheel of destiny turns. It is the same Yediyurappa who ensured the defeat of the BJP in 2013 when he walked out of the party and formed his own outfit, KJP. While his outfit won only six seats, this Lingayat strongman, however, managed to poll 11 per cent of votes. BJP was reduced to 40 seats in that 2013 hustings. BSY returned to the party in 2014, thanks to the initiative taken by Narendra Modi, who was at that time chief minister of Gujarat. Yediurappa won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Shimoga and was made the President of the state unit in 2016, keeping the 2018 Assembly elections in mind.