BSY’s resignation, reservation, Lingayat factor led to poll debacle, say BJP leaders

The BJP’s strength plummeted to 66 from the previous 104, while the Congress stole the thunder, winning 135 seats in the single-phase elections to the 224-member strong Karnataka Assembly.

As many as 12 ministers in the Basavaraj Bommai Cabinet, including JC Madhuswamy and Murugesh Nirani, were defeated.

The party postponed its planned core committee meeting since several senior leaders, including Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Shobha Karandlaje, could not attend.

ಇಂದು ರಾಜ್ಯ ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಲಯ ಜಗನ್ನಾಥ ಭವನದಲ್ಲಿ ನೂತನವಾಗಿ ಚುನಾಯಿತರಾದ ಬಿಜೆಪಿಯ ಎಲ್ಲ ಶಾಸಕರ ಸಭೆ ನಡೆಯಿತು.

ರಾಜ್ಯಾಧ್ಯಕ್ಷರಾದ ಶ್ರೀ ನಳಿನ್‌ ಕುಮಾರ್‌ ಕಟೀಲ್‌ ಮಾಜಿ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿಗಳಾದ ಶ್ರೀ ಬಿ. ಎಸ್.‌ ಯಡಿಯೂರಪ್ಪ, ರಾಜ್ಯ ಉಸ್ತುವಾರಿಗಳಾದ ಶ್ರೀ ಅರುಣ್‌ ಸಿಂಗ್‌, ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಕಾರ್ಯದರ್ಶಿಗಳಾದ ಶ್ರೀ ಸಿ. ಟಿ. ರವಿ,… pic.twitter.com/5VIbZe3Etr

— Basavaraj S Bommai (@BSBommai) June 8, 2023

Also read: BJP lost deposits in 31 constituencies, Congress in 12

The major factors

At the meeting in Bengaluru, the state leaders pointed out six main factors that routed the party: Yediyurappa’s resignation, reservation policies, senior Lingayat leaders Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi quitting the party, the delay in announcing the list of candidates, fielding 72 new faces, and the Congress’s five guarantees.

BJP Parliamentary Board member Yediyurappa, former chief ministers Basavaraj Bommai and DV Sadananda Gowda, former deputy chief minister KS Eshwarappa, National General Secretary CT Ravi, state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, and state general secretary and MLC Ravikumar and others attended the meeting.

“The defeated candidates pointed to multiple factors for the party’s debacle in the Assembly polls. There were also talks that the party gave more work to karyakartas before the elections and later neglected them,” Ravikumar said, stating that the meeting made a detailed assessment of the election results.

“The government hiked the reservation quota for SCs and STs, Vokkaligas and Lingayats to serve justice to all communities. But we could not implement it,” he told South First.

“The internal reservation for certain SCs and ST communities could have been taken up after the elections. The timing was not right,” he added.

“Senior Lingayat leaders Shettar and Savadi quitting the party had a huge impact on the result. The Lingayat voters, mainly Banajiga and Ganiga, who are dominant in North Karnataka, voted for other parties. Even senior leader KS Eshwarappa did not contest the election,” he further said.

“Despite providing quota hikes to Vokkaligas and Panchamsalis, both the dominant communities did not vote for the party. Even many mutts and pontiffs supported the Congress,” he explained.

Also read: Siddaramaiah holds meeting on ‘guarantees’ with officials

Delayed manifesto

Ravikumar said several leaders opined in the meeting that Yediyurappa should have been allowed to complete his term. “His resignation did not go well with the Lingayats.”

The delay in announcing the list of candidates, and the risk the party took by fielding 72 new faces, too, backfired, the BJP leader said.

“The freebies announced by the Congress in its manifesto had a huge impact. Its manifesto reached almost all people, mainly in the rural areas,” he pointed out.

Ravikumar further said that the BJP’s delay in releasing its manifesto also contributed to the defeat since it did not reach all voters.

“We should have campaigned more aggressively to ensure that our manifesto reached the rural areas. Other factors, including governance, too, were discussed in the meeting,” he added.

Also read: Jagadish Shettar says BL Santhosh ‘set Karnataka BJP on fire’

High command blamed

The senior leader also pointed out that the central leadership sidelining several of them while making crucial decisions, including finalising the candidates, affected the poll outcome.

“The central leadership played a pivotal role in the party’s election debacle. From finalising the ticket to taking major poll decisions to other works, the senior leaders were completely sidelined,” a veteran leader said, requesting anonymity.

“The party entrusted the job of finalising the tickets to those people who were not even from the region. The high command gave priority to the list submitted by BJP national general secretary BL Santosh and his team rather than the state BJP leaders,” he said.

“We vehemently opposed the party’s decision to field 72 new faces at the cost of senior leaders like Shettar and Savadi. The party did not listen to us but gave prominence to another team. The high command utterly failed in the ticket distribution,” he said, adding that the reservation policy, too, backfired on the BJP.