Bengaluru: They have a proverb in Kannada —geddonu sota, sotonu satta (the winner loses and the loser dies).
It summarizes the dilemma staring the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) soldier B.S. Yeddyurappa in the face. He has won big by over 35,000 votes, he is his Bharatiya Janata Party’s CM candidate, and the party has emerged as the single largest with at least 104 seats in the 224-member assembly.
But he may not find it easy to occupy the most powerful position in the state, because his rivals Congress and JD(S) are combing up a last-minute alliance to surpass a simple majority of 113 seats. Will he end up as a loser? As a loser, it is only a matter of time before curtains come down for Yeddyurappa in politics.
Yeddyurappa was haunted by his past political excesses in this election—infighting in the party, a string of scandals and a series of charges ranging from land grab to illegal mining scams. It eventually earned him a very dubious distinction—the first chief minister to be put behind the bars for corruption, although a CBI court acquitted him in some of the charges in 2016.
Then there was his age, 75, that remains the BJP’s unofficial upper bar for politicians to retire. If the strongman from the dominant Lingayat community does manage to hand over a clear majority for the BJP in Karnataka, party president Amit Shah had expressed willingness to disregard the rule.
The man has admitted that he is fighting his last battle from Shikaripura, from where it all began for an accountant in a rice mill who rose through the ranks of the RSS and Jan Sangh (the predecessor of the BJP) during the Emergency era.
Shikaripura is in Malnad district, Shivamogga, about 400 km from Bengaluru. After contesting the municipal election in Shikaripura in 1975, some seven years after he married the rice mill owner’s daughter, Yeddyurappa did not turn back.
“There was money in the municipality which was not used. He took out that money, so for the first time Shikaripura saw tubelights and all,” said a person close to him, on condition of anonymity. Almost four decades later, the picture was completely reversed.
He was accused of plundering public money, and had to quit unceremoniously as the CM. In leaving, he was defiant. The story is he threw a plastic chair at his rival Ananth Kumar in a heated meeting, accusing him of becoming a leader through the back door and sidelining him.
He went on to launch the Karnataka Janata Party, spoiling not only his own but also the BJP’s chances in the 2013 election. This time around, he almost became a CM. If only the accountant was good with numbers.