The BJP campaign managers have reportedly begun to worry, with many of the “corruption exposes”, by their Chief Ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa, becoming duds.
The latest was his allegation against Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil regarding a tender that, as it turned out, was cancelled three days before the expose. During the press conference on Thursday, Mr. Yeddyurappa also said that he would expose more corruption “of shocking levels” of the same Minister on Saturday. But that did not happen either.
His allegations against Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar on October 21, 2017 had similarly fizzled after the press conference, with the Minister producing documents to the contrary.
Recently, Mr. Yeddyurappa created anticipation by tweeting he will give “breaking news” the next day, only to read out data already in the public domain.
A senior party leader said it was sad to see Mr. Yeddyurappa faltering since he made his mark in politics as “a firebrand opposition leader” in the 1990s.
In both cases, there was lack of due diligence and homework to collect all the relevant documents, he said.
But the problem reportedly seems to run deeper, as the party high command has chosen corruption as one of the main plank to counter the Congress.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Siddaramaiah “10% CM”, but the corruption allegations made by Mr. Yeddyurappa against the government seem to be failing to stick. “Such fiascos where the government comes out relatively clean after an allegation damages the rhetoric,” said a communications manager of the party.
A senior MLA pointed out that corruption charges made by Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar had forced the government to take action. “But these being old do not figure big in the party’s campaign now,” he said.
Anti-corruption activist S.R. Hiremath said that when the BJP chose to fight the election on an anti-corruption plank, they should have thought twice before selecting Mr. Yeddyurappa as their Chief Ministerial candidate.
The BJP is trying to “brand” Mr. Yeddyurappa as a farmers’ leader. The Mushti Dhanya Abhiyan and the February 27 Davanagere farmer’s rally attended by the Prime Minister, Mr. Yeddyurappa’s promise of spending ₹1 lakh crore on irrigation if BJP comes to power are some of the measures in this direction.
