Bengaluru: Over the last week, former Karnataka chief minister and senior BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa and his son, BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra, met two of their harshest critics—former deputy CM K.S. Eshwarappa and former minister Basangouda Patil Yatnal—at separate events.
The meetings have set off speculation of Yatnal and Eshwarappa’s possible re-entry into the BJP and a potential reconciliation aimed at consolidating strength ahead of upcoming organisational changes in November. However, both Eshwarappa and Yatnal—expelled from the BJP in 2024 and 2025, respectively—have played down the meetings.
“There is no compromise per se between the warring factions. It so happened that Vijayendra and Yatnal were in the same place at the same time and spoke for barely five minutes,” said a senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity.
The leader added that Vijayendra initiated the conversation, marking a significant shift from his earlier position of refusing to even acknowledge Yatnal’s presence in the same room, let alone share pleasantries.
Senior party leaders say that the upcoming changes in November—including the long-delayed announcement regarding the state president—are driving these interactions as Vijayendra completes three years at the helm of party affairs in Karnataka. Vijayendra, who became an MLA in May 2023, was announced the state BJP president in November the same year, stirring up an already divided house, with several seniors protesting—overtly and covertly—the decision of the party’s central leadership to continue patronising the Yediyurappa family.
Although the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have earlier tried to sideline Yediyurappa, all efforts have been in vain. The 83-year-old Lingayat strongman has only consolidated his position as the undisputed—and possibly irreplaceable—harbinger of hope for the BJP in Karnataka, which it considers the gateway to South India.
The decision by national BJP president Nitin Nabin to replace Radha Mohan Agarwal with Harsh Dwidehi as the party general secretary in charge of Karnataka in September has triggered speculation of changes to follow, party sources say.
“Once the MLC elections are done with (27 October), the talks on other changes are likely to commence,” the leader cited above said.
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‘Changes can trigger talks’
Ever since Yediyurappa engineered mass defections and toppled the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress coalition in 2019, troubles have persisted within the BJP in Karnataka.
In July 2021, the BJP forced Yediyurappa to resign as chief minister and replaced him with Basavaraj Bommai. However, backlash from the Lingayat community forced the party to elevate Yediyurappa to the BJP’s Parliamentary Board, reversing its earlier plans to distance itself from the first family of the BJP in Karnataka.
Naming Vijayendra as state president in November 2023 opened the floodgates of dissent, dividing the party into several factions that have opposed the consolidation of power in the Yediyurappa household. Among the dissenting leaders were Eshwarappa, Yatnal, Ramesh Jarkiholi, G.M. Siddeshwara, Prathap Simha, and Murugesh Nirani.
In April 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Eshwarappa, the second most senior leader in the state BJP and its most prominent Kuruba face, was expelled for six years after he decided to contest as an independent against Yediyurappa’s elder son, B.Y. Raghavendra, in Shivamogga. Eshwarappa decided to contest as a rebel after his son K.E. Kantesh was denied a ticket from the neighbouring Gadag-Haveri seat in the election.
Since his exit, the BJP has struggled to find a replacement for Eshwarappa, who served as its primary backward classes leader and sole prominent face of the dominant Kuruba community.
The Kuruba community, traditionally a shepherding class, accounts for roughly 8 to 10 per cent of the state’s population and has a presence in almost all districts of Karnataka.
Amid speculation that Siddaramaiah was forced to step down as chief minister by the Congress high command, the BJP hopes to capitalise on the situation by projecting his resignation as an insult to the Kuruba community, which has been one of the sole political voting blocs that consolidated behind Siddaramaiah over the last two decades.
However, Eshwarappa downplayed the meet-up.
“It was Vijayadashmi Puja and he is a senior (political) leader. There is nothing more to this than that,” Eshwarappa told ThePrint.
When asked if he is likely to return to the BJP, he responded that he hasn’t thought about it yet, not ruling out the possibility.
Yatnal, who was expelled for six years in 2025 over his dissent against Vijayendra, has toed a similar line, stating that discussions of a possible return can only happen once the state organisation is restructured.
“I support Modi at the Centre. But in Karnataka, if there is a leadership change, then it will set the platform for talks (of reconciliation) to begin,” Yatnal told reporters Wednesday.
The firebrand leader also said that there had been one round of talks between him and the central leadership and reconciliation could happen faster once changes are made in the state.
Edited by Sunanda Ranjan