Bengaluru, April 12 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) chief Okay.S. Eshwarappa is likely one of the frontline members of the get together in Karnataka and has performed a key function together with former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa in making the BJP a power to reckon with within the state.
The 76-year-old chief is the face of OBCs and the Kuruba neighborhood. The person who’s considered one of many key leaders who constructed the BJP from scratch in Karnataka is right this moment at ‘crossroads’, having vowed to defeat the candidate of his personal get together from the Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency within the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, in an odd flip of occasions.
Eshwarappa has introduced that he’ll file his nomination on Friday as an Unbiased candidate. He additionally asserted he would win the seat and “dedicate his victory on the toes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
This determination has shocked everybody.
Initially, everybody assumed that Eshwarappa would mellow down after the get together excessive command spoke to him. Nonetheless, his resolve to contest in opposition to the BJP candidate has develop into a significant concern. The senior BJP chief can be contesting from Shivamogga as an Unbiased candidate in opposition to BJP candidate B.Y. Raghavendra — the son of Yediyurappa.
Eshwarappa needed a BJP ticket from the Haveri Lok Sabha constituency for his son, Okay.E. Kanthesh. Nonetheless, the get together fielded former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai from the Haveri seat — a growth that made Eshwarappa upset, with the ex-Deputy CM finally deciding to contest in opposition to Yediyurappa’s son within the Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency.
Eshwarappa expressed his outrage in opposition to Yediyurappa for not making certain a ticket for his son Kanthesh for the Haveri LS seat.
Following the incidents of the brutal homicide of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha in Shivamogga and the suicide of a contractor Santhosh Patil, Eshwarappa was denied the ticket to contest Meeting election from Shivamogga seat, which he represented for 5 phrases.
When former CM Jagadish Shettar and ex-Deputy CM Laxman Savadi stop the BJP and joined the Congress final 12 months forward of the Karnataka Meeting polls following the denial of tickets to them, Eshwarappa remained calm and said that he would abide by the get together’s determination.
The “love-hate equation” between former Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa and Eshwarappa is well-known in Karnataka political circles.
Sources inside the get together submitted that Eshwarappa is in a “hyper-sensitive” part of his political profession. And a defeat within the upcoming election may push him to a nook within the state’s political area.
Karnataka unit BJP president B.Y. Vijayendra has already said that “if Eshwarappa is keen to finish his political profession on this method then nobody can assist him”.
Eshwarappa, a seasoned campaigner, has additionally seen a sequence of setbacks in his political profession. He was requested to announce his resignation from the Cupboard in reference to the case of the suicide of a contractor in April 2022. Eshwarappa was denied ticket to contest from Shivamogga Meeting seat which he represented historically. And far to his chagrin, the get together allotted ticket to his shut aide Channabasappa, and he received elected.
Eshwarappa, who didn’t converse a phrase then and saved toeing the get together line has rebelled this time. He has vowed to problem the supremacy of his ‘friend-turned-foe’, B.S. Yediyurappa, within the get together.
“I can not merely sit and watch considered one of his sons changing into Union Minister, one other changing into BJP state unit president and preparing for the CM submit. The BJP is within the clutches of the Yediyurappa household and I’ll get the get together out of his clutches,” Eshwarappa stated.
Eshwarappa’s dad and mom had been every day wage earners. Motivated by his mom’s want to see him ‘doing good in life’, he went on to develop into one of many distinguished politicians of Karnataka.
Eshwarappa was born in Bellary district. His father Sharanappa and mom Basamma moved to Shivamogga within the early Nineteen Fifties. His dad and mom labored as every day wage earners. As a boy, Eshwarappa needed to affix his dad and mom within the work. Nonetheless, his mom didn’t enable him, and requested him to deal with schooling and “earn an excellent title within the society”.
His mom’s phrases motivated him to proceed his research, and extra so, deal with social work. Later, he was launched to RSS via Narasimha Murthy Iyengar, a VHP chief from Shivamogga.
Since then, Eshwarappa by no means turned again in his life.
From a pupil chief in ABVP, he turned metropolis unit president of the BJP in Shivamogga and went on to determine himself as a mass chief by defeating a heavyweight chief, then minister Okay.H. Srinivas, within the 1989 Karnataka Meeting elections.
Thus far, he misplaced solely as soon as in elections from Shivamogga Meeting section. Eshwarappa turned Deputy Chief Minister within the erstwhile Jagadish Shettar-led Cupboard in 2012. He served because the Rural Growth and Panchayat Raj Minister within the earlier Basavaraj Bommai-led Cupboard.
He was additionally appointed state unit get together president twice.
Nonetheless, he was additionally identified for controversial remarks all through his political profession.
Seen as a Hindutva chief, his remarks at instances drew nationwide consideration.
BJP President J.P. Nadda had as soon as suggested him to “decelerate” for his “hoisting saffron flag on the Purple Fort” comment.
–IANS
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