The stage has been set for the election of the Karnataka BJP chief, with current state BJP president BY Vijayendra and party MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal announcing their intent to contest the polls. While Vijayendra leads a faction loyal to his father and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Yatnal is from the camp of BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh. On Tuesday, Yatnal expressed confidence of securing a win if he contested for the state BJP chief’s post. "My victory is imminent," Yatnal announced to the media. A day later, former minister Kumar Bangarappa who is a key aide of Yatnal, said an official announcement of candidates from their camp would be made on January 31 - indicating that the decks might have been cleared for Yatnal. The factionalism within the Karnataka BJP unit has intensified over the last few weeks. After a BJP core committee meeting held last week, former minister B Sriramulu attacked Vijayendra and said the current BJP president had not backed him when he was allegedly facing attacks from BJP general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agrawal over the party’s defeat in a bypoll in the Sandur constituency last November. In the election, the Congress's E Annapoorna defeated the BJP's B Hanumanthu by 9,000 votes. Hanumanthu and Sriramulu are both from the Bellary district and are close aides. After the meeting, former Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda dubbed Vijayendra an “ad hoc leader” and claimed an “official president” would emerge soon. Gowda said, "When discharging his responsibility as president, he (Vijayendra) did not succeed in taking the camp opposed to him into confidence." Chikkaballapur MP K Sudhakar also took on Vijayendra publicly Wednesday. "He is taking none of the leaders into confidence. Apart from destroying the party in the state, he is trying to finish me off politically," he told a news conference. Sudhakar also charged that he was not consulted during the selection of office-bearers in Chikkaballapur. Sudhakar, who was minister in the erstwhile BJP government, said he would take his complaints to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. "Vijayendra cannot be compared to his father Yediyurappa. He is angry with me because I worked with (MP and former CM) Basavaraj Bommai," he said. Seen as politically “inexperienced”, Vijayendra was appointed the BJP state president in November 2023, after the party’s defeat in the May 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls. He replaced Nalin Kumar Kateel, superseding several senior leaders, a move that did not go down well with many in the BJP. Elections for the state BJP president are expected to be held in the month of February after the election process for the district BJP units is completed. While it is not a precedent, the possibility of an election was indicated earlier this month by Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who is in charge of organisational polls in the state. The first indication that there was going to be a battle was seen right after Vijayendra became president, when Yatnal said his leadership could not be accepted.
