Takeaway from Delhi: Sulking BSY may get PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate airport on turf

The airport in Shivamogga — where Yediyurappa represents the Shikaripura Assembly constituency and his older son B Y Raghavendra represents the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat — is tentatively scheduled for opening on February 12 and is subject to the clearances of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), said government sources.

Sources in the BJP said Yediyurappa is likely to have obtained the consent of the PM for the event during the meeting on Monday. The former CM is keen to have the opening of the airport ahead of his 80th birthday on February 27, sources said.

BJP insiders rejected suggestions that the meeting between the PM and Yediyurappa was about a possible change of leadership in Karnataka. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who is facing allegations of maladministration will remain CM in the run-up to the 2023 state polls, added the sources.

The meeting between the PM and Yediyurappa was held at a time when the BJP leadership is facing the prospect of alienation of the votes of the dominant Lingayat community in Karnataka — which Yediyurappa represents — and amid growing reports of Yediyurappa being sidelined in the BJP.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal with senior leader BS Yediyurappa and others leaves after BJP’s National Executive Meeting at NDMC Convention Centre, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. (PTI Photo/Kamal Kishore)

Yediyurappa and his family, however, also face multiple accusations of corruption from his tenure as CM between 2019 and 2021 and the alleged presence of his younger son B Y Vijayendra as a “super CM” in the state administration.

The BJP is known to have attempted to break the stranglehold that Yediyurappa has had over state party affairs by forcing the veteran leader to step down as CM in July 2021. To maintain its equations with Yediyurappa, the BJP appointed him to the national executive committee that gives him only a limited influence on politics in Karnataka.

Over the last few weeks, the speculation around the alienation of Yediyurappa — who is still considered to be a significant force in the Lingayat community — has risen. Yediyurappa was not present at two recent public meetings attended by Amit Shah and Modi in Karnataka and had to be coaxed into attending a meeting featuring BJP president J P Nadda in December. There has been speculation that the former CM was being sidelined by the current CM Basavaraj Bommai as well.

Yediyurappa has attempted to get Vijayendra a footing in state politics but the BJP leadership has not been in favour of the move and has used its ideological stance against “dynastic politics” to keep the former CM’s demand at bay. Last July, Yediyurappa himself announced that his younger son would contest from Shikaripura in the future.

Some discussion on politics in Karnataka and Yediyurappa’s role in it may have occurred during PM Modi’s meeting with Yediyurappa, party sources said. At present, the state BJP is seen as struggling to quell a movement by the Lingayat sub-sect of Panchamasalis who are seeking 15 per cent reservation under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota. The Panchamasalis rejected an offer made by Bommai last month to include Lingayats in a new category of reservation and have threatened to teach the BJP a lesson in the state polls.

The Panchamasalis make up nearly 55 per cent of Lingayats who constitute 17 per cent of the state population. Yediyurappa belongs to a numerically smaller sub-sect of Lingayats called Banajigas.

In 2021, when he was the chief minister, Yediyurappa directed Panchamasali leaders to approach the Centre on the quota issue. “Ours is a national party and not a regional party. We can take a decision only on the basis of the advice of the PM and other leaders in such matters. I do not have the power to make any decision on my own,” Yediyurappa said in the Assembly when BJP MLA Basanagouda Yatnal raised the issue.

Modi is scheduled to visit Karnataka multiple times in the run-up to the state polls to inaugurate multiple infrastructure projects, including four visits in February and at least one more visit in January, said government sources.