Dynasty Watch | Active and agile at 76, BS Yeddyurappa a driving force for sons Raghavendra and Vijayendra

India is set for the crucial Lok Sabha elections, starting April 11.

2019 will witness the absence of many veteran leaders who have opted out of the poll battle. However, they are playing an active role in shaping poll results in favour of their parties. One such leader is BS Yeddyurappa, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.

Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa, or BSY as he is popularly known, had won Shimoga Lok Sabha seat with a huge margin in 2014. However, he is not contesting this time.

The BJP chief in Karnataka, BSY is actively campaigning for the party with decades of experience.

In his political journey, BSY has covered the distance of having a humdrum existence as a government clerk and a hardware store owner to the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Often called controversy's favourite child, the political route was not easy for BSY. Apparently, despite being appointed chief minister of the state thrive, he could not finish even one full tenure on the post.

Yeddyurappa became the chief minister for the first time in November 2007 but his term in office lasted just eight days as Kumaraswamy reneged on a power-sharing arrangement and walked out of the alliance.

He was made the chief minister once again after the BJP came to power in May 2008 but had to step down in July 2011 following his indictment by the then Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde in an illegal mining case.

Also Read | BJP will win 22 of Karnataka's 28 seats, Cong-JD(S) govt may fall after results, says BSY

The third time, he got the CM post in May 2018 but resigned in just three days before facing a Supreme Court-mandated floor test.

Despite all the controversies, he has navigated the choppy waters of politics with the consummate ease of a seasoned oarsman, defying tidal waves of adversity. The Lingayat strongman is transferring this feature to his two sons – BY Raghavendra and BY Vijayendra, who have forayed to politics.

BY Raghavendra

BS Yeddyurappa’s son BY Raghavendra is a BJP Lok Sabha member from Shimoga constituency in Karnataka.

The political stint of BY Raghavendra was started soon after his graduation. In 2006, he won the local body elections in Shivamogga and just three years later, he was nominated as the candidate to contest in the Lok Sabha Election from Shimoga.

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In 2014, when Yeddyurappa returned to BJP with merger of his party Karnataka Janata Paksh, he resigned as the MLA of Shikaripura to contest the Lok Sabha polls. Raghavendra contested the bye-poll in Shikaripura and won by a large margin.

In 2018, when BSY vacated his Shimoga seat to become the CM of Karnataka, Raghavendra contests the by-poll and won.

He is again in fray from Shimoga seat to retain the power.

BY Vijayendra

BSY’s other son BY Vijayendra is also foraying into politics. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, Vijayendra’s name cropped up as a BJP candidate for Varuna constituency against then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Yatindra. However, a day before the deadline for filing of nominations, BSY announced that Vijayendra will not be contesting the polls abiding by the party’s decision.

The saffron party instead announced Vijayendra as the state general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

The party’s decision was said to be taken to rule out allegations of nepotism by political observers. However, he ruled out any such notion, and insisted that the BJP’s decision had nothing to do with concerns of dynastic politics or his father’s image.