Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command has come full circle in Karnataka, shifting from consciously marginalising former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa and his family to now shielding them, even if it comes at the cost of party loyalists.
In a move that underscores the shift, the party decided to expel firebrand MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal for his relentless attacks and allegations against Yediyurappa and his state president son, B.Y. Vijayendra, and defying the high command’s orders multiple times.
Analysts and political leaders say that the decision to expel Yatnal is a calculated move aimed at sending strong warnings to warring factions and curbing any dissent that could potentially damage the party’s prospects in its southern stronghold.
Unlike other states, the BJP sees Karnataka as its ‘gateway to the south’ and Yediyurappa is crucial for retaining its hold on the state as it seeks to expand in poll-bound states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where it has little or no presence.
“They (BJP) will not gain anything by siding with Yatnal over Yediyurappa right now. Yediyurappa is considered the leader of the entire Lingayat community while Yatnal is called a leader of just one sub-caste (Panchamasali), which can be taken only that far,” Ramzan Darga, writer and expert on Lingayat philosophy, told ThePrint.
He, however, added that the developments are no indication that the BJP “loves Yediyurappa or hates Yatnal”.
Though the BJP has shared a love-hate relationship with Yediyurappa, it is well aware of the influence the 82-year-old wields in Karnataka’s caste-driven political landscape.
Yediyurappa has been the undisputed leader of the Lingayat community, believed to be the single largest caste group in the state and core support base of the national party, and action against him has proved costly for the BJP in the past.
While the BJP under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah has marginalised several such regional satraps like Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan, Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh, it has treated Yediyurappa differently.
Hours after Yatnal’s expulsion, Yediyurappa’s sons—Shivamogga MP B.Y. Raghavendra and Vijayendra—shared pictures of them with Modi and them with Shah in Delhi, a move seen as a signal of the BJP leadership’s continued support for Yediyurappa.
ದೇಶವನ್ನು ಸಮರ್ಥವಾಗಿ ಮುನ್ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ಪ್ರಧಾನಮಂತ್ರಿ ಶ್ರೀ @narendramodi ಜೀ ಅವರನ್ನು ನವದೆಹಲಿಯಲ್ಲಿಂದು ಭೇಟಿಯಾಗಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಕುಟುಂಬದ ವಿವಾಹ ಮಹೋತ್ಸವಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಅಭಿಮಾನ ಪೂರ್ವಕವಾಗಿ ಆಹ್ವಾನಿಸಿದೆವು.
ವಿಕಸಿತ ಭಾರತದ ಮಹಾಸಂಕಲ್ಪ ತೊಟ್ಟು ತಪಸ್ವಿ ಸಾಧಕರಂತೆ ದೇಶ ಕಟ್ಟುವ ಕಾರ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ತಮ್ಮನ್ನು… pic.twitter.com/Hm9mST5Nvj— Vijayendra Yediyurappa (@BYVijayendra) March 26, 2025
With immense joy and deep respect, I feel greatly honored to invite Hon’ble Home Minister Shri @AmitShah ji to my son Subash’s wedding. His guidance and blessings mean a lot to our family, and we would be truly privileged to have his presence on this special occasion.
We look… pic.twitter.com/Zc6ysRfgl0
— B Y Raghavendra (@BYRBJP) March 26, 2025
‘High command establishing authority’
Yatnal’s expulsion—his third so far—comes amid a spate of resignations from the Vijayapura BJP unit, most of them minor leaders.
In the past, he made his way back into the party after his expulsion in 2010 and then in 2015 largely because his fierce anti-Muslim rhetoric and Hindutva-based politics have few other takers in the state, analysts say.
They add that his past expulsions barely had any significant impact on the party or the larger political landscape.
A Bengaluru-based analyst said the action against Yatnal does not “necessarily mean the strengthening of Yediyurappa” but instead is a move by the BJP high command to reassert its authority within the state unit.
“He (Yatnal) does give the impression of not being under the control of the high command. I see this as a case of the high command establishing its authority,” the analyst added.
Yatnal’s expulsion has seen a wave of leaders rush to his support—but cautiously.
“All the members of our team (rebel faction) will sit, discuss and we will get Yatnal to write a letter to the high command asking them to review the decision to expel and also to withdraw it,” Ramesh Jarkiholi, a core member of the Yatnal-led rebel faction, told reporters in Belagavi Thursday.
“I am speaking (for Yatnal) because he is from the dominant Panchamasali community and the damage his expulsion can do to the party. I have no selfish reason in speaking for Yatnal,” former minister B. Sriramulu said.
Darga said Yatnal’s influence is largely limited to Vijayapura, with some visibility in neighbouring states.
Yediyurappa, on the other hand, had single-handedly brought down the BJP’s tally from 110 in 2008 to just 40 in 2013 when he quit the party and formed the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) one year before the assembly polls.
Though Modi-Shah do not take kindly to people who leave the party, they made several exceptions when it comes to Yediyurappa.
They named him the chief ministerial candidate one year before the 2018 assembly elections when he was 76, breaking two of its unwritten rules: first, that no one above the age of 75 will hold any administrative post and second, refraining from announcing a CM candidate before poll results.
Yediyurappa became the chief minister for two years from 2019 to 2021 after engineering mass defections from the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government.
He was then asked to step down in July 2021 after anonymous letters from his own ministers surfaced, accusing Vijayendra of running a parallel government under the aegis of his CM father.
Facing severe backlash, Yediyurappa was elevated to the parliamentary board of the party and later his son, Vijayendra, was named state chief in November 2023.
“Vijayendra was not made party president because he is Yediyurappa’s son but because he has proved to be an able leader,” a national leader of the party had earlier told ThePrint.
Vijayendra’s elevation opened the floodgates of dissent–overt and covert–from the likes of Yatnal, Ramesh Jarkiholi, C.T. Ravi, Prathap Simha and several others who accused the Yediyurappa family of corruption, being dynastic, adjustment politics and not remaining true to the BJP’s larger cause of Hindutva.
Yatnal went as far as to state that Yediyurappa was not from the Lingayat community and belonged to the Balegara Shettaru caste, a micro OBC group in Karnataka.
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‘Upcoming state elections’
Growing factionalism has delayed the election of a new state BJP president in Karnataka. The Yatnal-led rebel faction had openly challenged Vijayendra and even announced its intent to field a candidate against him.
But the high command has even sent warnings to Vijayendra camp as M.P. Renukacharya and Katta Subramanya Naidu were served show-cause notices Tuesday.
Vijayendra called the expulsion of Yatnal “unfortunate” on Wednesday.
“As part of a cultured and disciplined organisation, let us respect the decision taken by the party leaders and move forward with a united resolve towards the struggles that need to be undertaken against the corrupt Congress government in the state in order to build the party in the coming days,” Vijayendra said Thursday.
ಆತ್ಮೀಯ ಕಾರ್ಯಕರ್ತ ಬಂಧುಗಳೇ,
ಭಾರತೀಯ ಜನತಾ ಪಾರ್ಟಿ ಉದಾತ್ತ ಉದ್ದೇಶ ಹಾಗೂ ಗುರಿಯನ್ನಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು ಯೋಜಿತವಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆದು ಕೋಟ್ಯಂತರ ಸಮರ್ಪಣಾ ಕಾರ್ಯಕರ್ತರನ್ನು ದೇಶ ಕಟ್ಟುವ ಬದ್ಧತೆಗಾಗಿ ಸಜ್ಜುಗೊಳಿಸಿದ ಪಕ್ಷ, ಅಶಿಸ್ತಿನ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ಇಂದು ಪಕ್ಷದ ವರಿಷ್ಠರು ಕೈಗೊಂಡಿರುವ ನಿರ್ಧಾರವನ್ನು ಸಂಭ್ರಮಿಸಬಾರದೆಂದು ವಿನಂತಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ.
ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರವಂತ…
— Vijayendra Yediyurappa (@BYVijayendra) March 26, 2025
With Yatnal out of the way for now, the Vijayendra camp may have high hopes of him retaining the post of the state president. Analysts, however, say that no decision can be taken without the approval of the national leadership.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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