Party hopper-chowkidar CP Yogeshwar’s berth-right angers BJP MLAs

BENGALURU: With disgruntled leaders huddled in meetings, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa scrambling to pacify stakeholders, cabinet aspirants throwing tantrums and dissenting MLAs openly dissing the decision of the party — the BJP today is inching towards a scenario that played out during the Congress-JDS coalition government a few months ago in Karnataka. And at the centre of this storm is CP Yogeshwar — a serial party hopper, a prominent Vokkaliga face and a key reason for the collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government. 

Despite failing to win in his home turf of Channapatna in the 2018 assembly elections, Yogeshwar is well on his way to becoming a minister, and BJP legislators are not amused. From being an independent MLA in 1999 from Channapatna, Yogeshwar has switched parties five times — Congress to BJP in 2009 to Samajwadi Party in 2013,  back to the Congress in 2014 and again to the BJP in 2017. The 56-year-old leader has contested from Channapatna assembly seat six times and lost just once — in 2018. According to his 2018 election affidavit, Yogeshwar has 13 criminal cases against him including that of a real estate fraud. 

Despite his dubious distinction, the party is in the mood to reward Yogeshwar for his ‘loyalty’ in the time of crisis. The Vokkaliga leader, who was once Congress leader D K Shivakumar’s protege and now foe, is credited with not just accosting Congress and JDS MLAs to jump ships but also for standing guard much like a ‘chowkidar’ once the MLAs rebelled against the then coalition government. Congress’ HD Kote MLA Anil Chikkamadu had accused Yogeshwar of pressuring him to switch sides, an allegation the BJP leader brushed aside. 

In Yogeshwar, the BJP sees the prospects of a caste and mass leader in the Old Mysuru region, especially given the fact that then arch-rivals Shivakumar and Kumaraswamy formed an unspoken alliance of sorts in Channapatna to defeat the Vokkaliga strongman in the 2018 assembly polls. The anger over Laxman Savadi, who lost the assembly bypolls from Athani seat in 2018, being chosen as DyCM, is now boiling over at the possibility of Yogeshwar, another electoral failure,  swooping on a berth that could have accommodated a winning candidate.