The Yeddyurappa way

Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa has finally resigned as Karnataka chief minister. The legacy of his three-year reign,extending from crony capitalism to legislative impropriety,is rather unseemly. In the blatant favouritism that he showed to his family,especially his sons Vijayendra and Raghavendra,he is also behind the Yeddy Inc,a sordid contemporary template of politics being reduced to family welfare.

The BSY tenure saw the chief minister using his discretionary powers to denotify plots of land near Bangalore. The ultimate beneficiaries were allegedly his immediate family. For facilitating the denotification,his sons reportedly got prime land at throwaway prices and payments in their companies. In outright defiance at the face of propriety and probity,which characterised the Yeddyurappa reign all along,he claimed that it was within his right to release land. A sentiment that was validated later by the BJP president in a hair-splitting argument that it was immoral,but not illegal. The Lokayuktas report,which finally compelled the BJP to force Yeddyurappas hand,details an alleged quid pro quo as well a mining company that reportedly donated crores of rupees to an education trust run by the family is said to have had financial dealings with his sons.

Yeddyurappa was central to the success of the BJP in installing its first single-party government in Karnataka,a state that the party set its eyes on to gain heft as a national party. Bringing the support of the politically dominant Lingayats,he also oversaw a series of manoeuvres to retain the partys majority in the assembly. Curiously,it was this sense of an ongoing threat to the governments stability that became an excuse to swat demands of accountability from the CM and his ministers. This is why,even as he reluctantly hands over power,there are still questions whether the Yeddyurappa era is in fact over.