BJP politics in Karnataka is letting Modi down. It’s becoming another Congress

Incumbent and former MLAs walking over to rival camps, leaders publicly criticising the high command were the Congress' hallmark. BJP is witnessing all these in Karnataka.

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai with PM Modi | ANI

In 1980, when former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad went to Washim in Maharashtra to file his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha election, advocate RG Rathi gave him a new Fiat car with a driver and money for petrol for a month. Azad recalls this in his newly released autobiography Azaad. Six months after that election, Azad writes, “I could reciprocate the goodwill and generosity shown by him (Rathi) to me by giving him an assembly ticket.”

That’s as easy as it gets. Spare a car, a driver, and petrol for a big neta and get a Congress ticket. It’s a delight to read about Azad’s days in the Congress.

Party leaders would tell you that tickets have been given for even cheaper considerations. When former Congress leaders write or talk about the party, they come out with such delectable nuggets of information. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar has another interesting take on how the Congress high command chose chief ministers. In 1982, when AR Antulay resigned as Maharashtra CM, then-Prime Minister and Congress President Indira Gandhi opted for Babasaheb Bhosale, a first-term MLA as his replacement. In his autobiography On My Terms, Pawar recalls how several stories about why he was handpicked were doing the rounds. One was that he shared his second name with Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji and Indira Gandhi thought Bhosale was his descendant. Another was that his assembly constituency’s name, Nehru Nagar, did the trick for him. “My personal guess was that…because he was the son-in-law of…Tulshidas Jadhav….In the 1969 presidential election…of the five or six votes (Gandhi’s candidate) Dr VV Giri polled from the state, one was that of Tulshidas Jadhav,” Pawar writes.

Just like that. You never knew when the ‘good’ works done by one’s parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents for the Congress high command would fetch one an assembly or Parliament ticket or even the chief ministerial chair. Indira Gandhi’s descendants have largely followed this practice.

It’s only logical that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has replaced the Congress as the dominant party, should also inherit the practices that the grand old party followed.

BJP leaders and the party’s rank and file are, therefore, not surprised when the high command picks up an ML Khattar, a Bhupendra Patel, Pushkar Dhami, or Manik Saha as chief minister. It’s often a surprise to Uncle Google. The BJP seems to have started taking a cue from the old Congress in selecting party candidates too. Or so it seems from what happened in the 2022 Himachal Pradesh election and what’s happening in Karnataka now. In Himachal, at least 17 BJP leaders, including sitting MLAs, broke away from the party to contest as rebel candidates. That constituted one-fourth of the total 68 seats in the assembly.

The hallmarks of Congress in BJP

Look at the current scenario in Karnataka. At least 10 BJP MLAs and MLCs have quit the party so far. If politics is about optics, the BJP is having a terrible run in the southern state ahead of the assembly election on 10 May. Ex-CM Jagadish Shettar, 67, a prominent Lingayat face, resigned from the BJP after being denied party ticket. The six-term MLA, who had ideological moorings in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was the leader of the opposition during the previous Congress regime. He is now contesting on a Congress ticket in this election and blames BJP’s National General Secretary (Organisation)  BL Santhosh for his exit.

Loyalty to a person (Santhosh) is more important than loyalty to the party, Shettar said. The BJP denied him the ticket for the Hubli-Dharwad (Central) seat and gave it to Mahesh Tenginakai, who Shettar describes as Santhosh’s “manasa putra” or blue-eyed boy.

Shettar also alleged that former minister SA Ramdas was denied a ticket in Mysuru to accommodate TS Srivatsa, who is close to Santhosh. Former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, 63, another prominent Lingayat leader, also quit the BJP after he was denied a ticket. He is contesting the polls on a Congress ticket now.

Incumbent and former MLAs walking over to rival camps, party workers protesting on the streets, and leaders publicly criticising the high command — these used to be the hallmark of the Congress and regional parties during election season. For a change, the BJP is witnessing all these in Karnataka.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi having to call a senior party leader, KS Eshwarappa, to express his happiness about the Kuruba leader showing commitment to the party sums up the BJP’s state of affairs in Karnataka. The unstated message of that call was: “Thank you so much for not quitting the party.” Eshwarappa was first asked to opt out of the electoral race, and then his wish for a ticket for his son was rejected.

Heartburns over BJP’s candidate selection

What are the BJP’s criteria for giving tickets to candidates? Over the last nine years, party leaders have been citing a set of unwritten guidelines: No ticket to candidates above 75, no promotion of dynasties, a clean image, and winnability, of course. Eshwarappa’s exclusion could be attributed to his age — 74 — and the controversy over Belagavi-based contractor Santosh Patil’s suicide. The latter had earlier written a letter to the PM alleging that his aides demanded 40 per cent commission for releasing payment. Eshwarappa had to resign from the cabinet. Although Udupi police later gave a clean chit to him, he was not taken back.

In 2017, BS Yediyurappa had publicly accused Sathosh of backing Eshwarappa in launching a rebellion against him. With the Congress launching a campaign over “40 per cent commission government”, the BJP obviously found it safer not to give him or his son a party ticket. It was certainly not the age criterion because the party has fielded GH Thippareddy—who will turn 76 in a couple of months—in Chitradurga. Age couldn’t have been the criterion for denying a party ticket to Shettar either. As for the clean image, Karnataka State Contractors Association (KSCA) had accused Thippareddy of taking Rs 90 lakh as bribe.

Given the BJP’s stand on dynasty politics, it has been rather selective in Karnataka. It has given a ticket to Yediyurappa’s son Vijayendra on his father’s home turf Shikaripura. Yediyurappa’s elder son, Raghavendra, is already a BJP MP. BJP MLA Umesh Katti’s son and brother have been given party tickets as well.

While Eshwarappa’s son was denied ticket even after the father withdrew from the electoral race, the BJP obliged minister Anand Singh who opted out of the race to ensure a party ticket for his son Siddharth. In 2019, the BJP had given a Lok Sabha ticket to sitting MLA Shashikala Jolle’s husband, Annasaheb Jolle. In 2023, when her husband is an MP, she has been given a BJP ticket in the assembly election again. Both husband and wife were BJP candidates in the 2018 assembly elections. The BJP denied a ticket to MLA Aravind Limbavali but chose to pass it on to his wife Manjula in the Mahadevapura constituency.

There are many more names of dynasties and politicians’ relatives in the BJP’s list of candidates in Karnataka. This prompted Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh to take a jibe at the BJP. He said that 34 BJP candidates were there “due to nepotism”.

Modi’s magic words hollowed out 

There are three words or issues that form the core of PM Modi’s appeal in assembly elections — corruption, dynasty, and double-engine sarkar.

A string of corruption charges has dogged BJP MLAs and ministers in Karnataka in the past four years. So much so that the BJP seems to have stopped bothering about these charges while selecting candidates. Thippareddy’s candidature, for instance.

The second major issue Modi raises invariably in election speeches is how dynastic politics is the ‘biggest enemy’ of democracy. While campaigning in Karnataka, PM Modi may want to check out the background of party candidates on the dais before talking about dynastic politics. For he may end up hurting the prospects of many BJP candidates if he keeps on harping about dynasty politics.

As for his promise of double-engine growth, suffice it to say that Modi, in his eight visits to Karnataka this year, has chosen to focus on the achievements of his government at the Centre without having much to say about the Basavaraj Bommai-led government’s developmental works.

These odds aside, the BJP can still bank on Modi’s personality cult and Hindutva to romp home in Karnataka, although there lingers a big question mark on the impact of the party’s star campaigner with his ‘magical’ words or formulae — corruption, dynasty, and double-engine—rendered hollow. If one must clutch at straws in what appears to be a tough electoral battle ahead, here is one. Remember Kripal Parmar, the BJP rebel in Himachal? Weeks before the polls in the hill state, Modi had called him and urged him to sit out of the polls — “Mera Kripal aisa nahin kar sakta (My Kripal can’t do it)”. Kripal didn’t relent.

In Karnataka, Modi called up Eshwarappa on Friday. He might have been apprehensive of his adverse reaction after the party denied a ticket to his son. Eshwarappa looks mollified — for now, at least.

DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. Views are personal.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)