Yeddyurappa gears up for 2018 Assembly elections

Former chief minister has already identified candidates for 150 key constituencies

A file photo of B.S. Yeddyurappa.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was declared the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2018 Assembly election in the State by party president Amit Shah at a public rally last week, and he is not allowing any grass to grow under his feet in preparing for the polls.

Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Yeddyurappa said he had already identified 150 out of the total 224 constituencies where the party hoped to win. He has gone as far as identifying possible candidates from those seats in the run-up to the polls.

“I have now decided that the party will not be organising big

samaveshas [conclaves] whether of the Scheduled or Other Backward communities after the one held last week. Now we will concentrate on 150 seats and will be holding district-level meetings in these areas to gauge the public mood and see the response to the candidates we have identified,” he said.

Surveys planned

“All of this will be followed up by two or three surveys by both the State and central party units, and seats will be decided early.”

Mr. Yeddyurappa said he had learnt much from his time in the political wilderness after his own outfit, the Karnataka Janata Paksha — formed after his rebellion against the BJP in 2012 — lost in the 2013 Assembly elections.

“I have learnt a lot in the meantime — who to trust, who not to. But the biggest learning is that the people are the most sincere and have kept faith with me. And I shall only draw my strength from them,” he said.

Praises demonetisation

He praised the recent decision by the Modi government to demonetise Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, as something that would have a positive impact in the countryside. “For many years, we saw that only 30-35 per cent of farmers in the State got institutional finance. Now with Jan Dhan accounts, that figure is much higher and they will be able to get the full benefit of this measure, which has long-term implications for how farmers relate to financial institutions,” he said.

He admitted that the lavish wedding hosted by his erstwhile ministerial colleague and mining baron (lately out of jail), G. Janardhana Reddy, for his daughter was “unseemly” , but that he had his own compulsions in attending it.