Young guns create history as saffron tinge gets brighter in Karnataka

Radical young leaders move to BJP forefront, likely to lead the show in future in Karnataka
BJP’s Tejasvi Surya becomes the man of the moment after winning from Bangalore South seat. (Right) Actress Bhavana is all smiles at the BJP head office in Bengaluru on Thursday | pics: NAGARAJA GADEKAL, shriram B N
BJP’s Tejasvi Surya becomes the man of the moment after winning from Bangalore South seat. (Right) Actress Bhavana is all smiles at the BJP head office in Bengaluru on Thursday | pics: NAGARAJA GADEKAL, shriram B N

BENGALURU: It is the dawn of a new era for the Karnataka BJP unit. A fresh breed of leaders — radical, young and definitely a harder shade of saffron — has propelled the party to an unprecedented victory of 
25 seats. 

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya, Uttara Kannada MP Anant Kumar Hegde and Mysore-Kodagu MP Prathap Simha form the new clique which won with handsome margins, pushing the older generation into the shade. 

While Bangalore North MP D V Sadananda Gowda and Bangalore Central MP P C Mohan too have won with good margins, they are not known to peddle hardline Hindutva. 

Their young leaders’ radical views have regularly made waves on social media: Kateel had tweeted, eulogising Nathuram Godse and saying he had killed just one person; he won by 2.74 lakh votes. Anant Kumar Hegde had spoken of changing the Constitution and also tweeted in support of Godse, along with Sadhvi Pragya Singh. He had later said that his twitter handle had been hacked; he won by 4.79 lakh votes. Tejasvi Surya, also known for his radical comments, won by a 3.29 lakh vote margin. In fact, so hardline are their views that they could cause a Yeddyurappa to squirm in discomfort.
     
As the BJP exulted and broke into a long night of celebration after the unexpected 25/28 win, it is these new leaders who enjoyed greater traction among the voters. The win was doubly sweet because the Congress and JDS wanted to restrict BJP to single digits. 

The combined vote share of the opposition parties stood at 58%, but clearly, infighting took its toll and the famed vote share failed, giving the BJP massive victory margins. 

The credit for scripting the big win goes to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state president B S Yeddyurappa. He toured the state multiple times, while most others leaders were pinned down to their own constituencies — CM H D Kumaraswamy to Mandya, JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda to Hassan and Tumkur, former CM Siddaramaiah to Mysore and Chamarajanagar, and Opposition leader Mallikarjuna Kharge to Gulbarga. Yeddyurappa was the only mass leader who addressed rallies from Bidar in the north to Kolar in the south. 

Yeddyurappa’s handpicked man Malikarjun Khuba won Bidar while his chosen Congress import Umesh Jadhav won Gulbarga, and Srinivass Prasad won Chamarajanagar. Yeddyurappa remains the undisputed leader of the majority Lingayats, much the same way that Deve Gowda is leader of the Vokkaligas and Siddaramaiah is leader of the backwards.

The BJP’s winning trend began in 2009 when it upset the Congress by winning 18 seats, and in 2014, won 17 seats. The sudden jump of eight seats has pumped up the leaders. 

Despite these leaders making a splash, the undisputed victor remains Yeddyurappa and could be rewarded richly. Asked if the coalition government would fall, he said, “We will wait and see what decision the coalition government takes.”

Asked is a mid-term election on the horizon? “I will need the permission of central leaders to talk about such issues,’’ he said.   

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com