BS Yediyurappa's caste model to keep him relevant | Economic Times

Even after resigning, BS Yediyurappa is likely to remain relevant in Karnataka politics at least till the 2023 assembly election. Yediyurappa is credited with establishing the BJP in southern India by becoming the party’s first chief minister of Karnataka in 2007. Being from the Lingayat community, which accounts for 16 per cent of the state population, he helped consolidate the support of the caste group to the party. The community was disenchanted with the Congress and he steered it to the BJP camp.But Lingayats were just one part of his social engineering. He also wooed Marathas and a section of Brahmins and Dalits to weave together a strong alliance.At the same time, BJP leaders like Anant Kumar and a few leaders from coastal Karnataka took forward the Hindutva narrative. Yediyurappa managed to balance the caste coalition and the BJP’s central Hindutva narrative, and together they worked well for the party. The carefully calibrated caste politics helped the BJP make inroads into North Karnataka while the Hindutva drive helped in gaining a foothold in coastal as well as urban parts of the state.Yediyurappa did everything to form a government in the state, from aligning with the JDS to breaking the Congress.BJP members maintained that Yediyurappa will be important in the party’s scheme of things.The section of the BJP which was opposing Yediyurappa feels that the BJP is now getting votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and on Hindutva, which goes beyond caste. However, the party understands the importance of caste as well as Hindutva.In the past few years, the BJP has adopted a similar model of caste and Hindutva in states such as Haryana and UP.The choice of the new face in Karnataka would very much depend on the person’s ability to marry caste and the Hindutva pitch without either overriding the other.Names such as home minister Basavaraj Bommai, industrialist and state minister Murugesh Nirani, Union minister and Brahmin face Prahlad Joshi, national general secretary and Vokkaliga leader CT Ravi are doing the rounds. Whoever makes the cut will be expected to deliver the 2023 assembly election and 2024 general election for the party.