The BJP had appointed three deputy chief ministers — Govind Karjol, Laxman Savadi, and CN Ashwathnarayana — in 2019, but didn't find success.
Prime Minister Modi with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai of Karnataka on 20 June, 2022. (Supplied)
Switching to election mode in poll-bound Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to make changes at the structural level. Even as the party prepares to replace its state President Nalin Kumar Kateel, sources suggest that changes are being considered at the government level as well.
“A Cabinet reshuffle is on the cards in September. Central leaders of the party are considering the option of appointing two deputy chief ministers: one from the Scheduled Caste (ST) community and another from Other Backward Classes (OBC),” a minister in the Karnataka cabinet told South First.
The party’s consideration of deputy chief ministers comes following unrest among party cadres as well as the Congress’ increasing influence among caste groups following former chief minister Siddaramaiah’s 75th birthday celebrations. The internal surveys of the party giving it barely 90 out of 224 seats in Karnataka have pushed the BJP to consider a shake-up of its structures.
With elections barely months away, the BJP believes it is already delayed in its approach to campaigning. The party, which generally begins its electioneering a year before elections, is yet to launch a Karnataka-wide outreach programme.
Things, however, will change in September after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dakshin Kannada. “We have launched a nationwide programme to work harder in Lok Sabha constituencies that we lost in previous elections. This will be applied at the state level as well,” BJP national general secretary CT Ravi told South First.
As part of this outreach programme, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is slated to begin his tour of 50 constituencies across the state, where the BJP lost in the 2018 Assembly elections. The BJP state president will tour another 50 constituencies.
BS Yediyurappa meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi after his elevation to BJP Parliamentary Board. 26 August 2022. (Supplied)
On Friday, former chief minister and now BJP Parliamentary board member BS Yediyurappa announced his own statewide tour. “I have been given more responsibility and I plan on touring the entire state to understand the ground situation,” Yediyurappa told South First.
On Friday, the veteran BJP leader met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda, and national secretary (organization) BL Santhosh in New Delhi.
With Bommai — a Lingayat from the minor Sadar sub-sect — as chief minister and now pan-community leader Yediyurappa as a member of the Parliamentary board, the BJP is hopeful of retaining the consolidated support of the Lingayats.
With a change of guards at the party-president post, the BJP hopes to accommodate an OBC or Vokkaliga face. For other representation, the BJP is considering appointing two deputy chief ministers.
“The BJP’s core vote bank is Lingayats, SC (Left) and a share of OBC votes other than Brahmins. We need representation from the SC and OBC communities in some form ahead of elections. We have to try to woo a portion of the Vokkaliga votes, too,” the aforementioned senior minister told South First.
The thought process of appointing deputy chief ministers also comes from the internal struggle of the BJP to give more relevant space to core party leaders. With one-third of the Bommai Cabinet filled with leaders who jumped ships to the BJP from the JD(S) and the Congress in 2019, the party hopes to change the perception among core party workers that “outsiders” are taking control of key positions.
Deputy chief ministers are not a new concept for the BJP. More often than not, the party has opted to give representation to multiple communities at the government level by creating DCM posts. R Ashok and KS Eshwarappa were made deputies to Yediyurappa when the BJP formed its first-ever “non-coalition” government in Karnataka.
Bommai met Minister for IT, BT Dr CN Ashwathnarayana, and members of Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce at its 45th annual general meeting on Friday, 5 August. (Supplied)
In 2019, too, when the Yediyurappa government came to power after the collapse of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, the BJP appointed three deputy chief ministers.
CN Ashwathnarayana, Govind Karjol, and Laxman Savadi — Vokkaliga, SC, and Lingayat, respectively — were expected to emerge as influential leaders within the community.
“The experiment of the three DCMs did not really work. That explains why the party chose not to appoint anyone as DCM when Bommai took charge, and expected him to emerge as an alternative leader of the Lingayats,” a senior RSS functionary-turned-minister in the Bommai government told South First.
Despite the three-DCM strategy not working, the BJP is considering adding two DCMs into the mix due to mounting pressure on the party to go on a campaign blitzkrieg and appeal to most communities.
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