The government of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka, headed by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, is apparently under the direct watch of the central leadership of the party, given the directions to elevate three of the Ministers as Deputy Chief Ministers, and this could also be a pointer to the preparations for mid-term elections to the Legislative Assembly.
In a way, the directions to appoint three Deputy CMs, including Laxman Savadi, who is not even a member of either House of the State legislature, is indicative that Mr. Yediyurappa no longer has the clout that he enjoyed in the past. Added to this, party MP from Mangaluru, Nalin Kumar Kateel, has been appointed State BJP president to replace Mr. Yediyurappa, who held the position during the run-up to the Legislative Assembly elections, followed by the elections to the Lok Sabha.
It is, however, rather strange that the BJP preferred to enable Mr. Yediyurappa to take charge as the Chief Minister after the coalition government, headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy, lost its majority on the floor of the Legislative Assembly and demitted office. If it was keen on mid-term elections, then it could have opted for the same right away. The obvious conclusion is that the BJP central leadership is not in favour of displeasing Mr. Yediyurappa, who has been the State BJP’s front-line leader for long and was more than keen on taking charge as Chief Minister having missed the bus soon after the 2018 elections to the Legislative Assembly when the party fell short of obtaining a simple majority. He has now been given the opportunity and he has to prove that he is much different than what he was in his earlier stint as the head of the government between 2008 and 2011.
The long delay in the constitution of the Council of Ministers and a similar delay in the finalisation of the portfolio’s of the Ministers is an adequate reflection of the difficulties faced by the Chief Minister who took charge of the office soon after over 15 legislators, elected on a ticket of the Congress and JD (S), shifted their loyalties to the BJP. The reported assurance extended by the BJP to the 17 Congress and JD(S) legislators, who rebelled and were later disqualified from the Legislative Assembly, is yet to be fulfilled since their petition before the Supreme Court is yet to be disposed of. In a way, the delay in the adjudication of their petition has come as a blessing to the ruling party since it would be near impossible to accommodate all of them in the ministry.
Given the thin majority that the BJP government enjoys on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, it is rather difficult to say at this juncture on whether Mr. Yediyurappa will be able to provide a stable government, more so, since he is bound to face similar difficulties as that of the previous dispensation headed by Mr. Kumaraswamy. As such, several legislators of the BJP have voiced their disappointment since they have not been accommodated in the ministry, and incidentally, several of them are close confidants of Mr. Yediyurappa. It remains to be seen whether they will raise a banner of revolt although it is unlikely since the BJP has a promising future compared to the Congress and the JD(S).
( The writer is Senior Fellow, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy )
