NEW DELHI: Former Karnataka CM and Lingayat strongman B S Yeddyurrappa, a formidable Lingayat leader from the state, is all set to break away from BJP and launch his new party, Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), on December 9, in what will mark a big setback to BJP's plan for the 2014 polls.
Yeddyurrappa with his strong pull among the dominant Lingayats has been widely credited for the installation of the first BJP-led government in the southern state, and his exit may leave the party reeling while potentially creating opening for opponents.
The KJP will enter the fray with the avowed objective of humiliating the party and is open to the idea of tactical alliances with other players — Congress and former PM H D Deve Gowda's JD(S) — to humiliate his arch-enemy, the BJP.
Yeddyurrappa plans to quit the BJP on December 5 — the day the state assembly session begins — but he does not intend to withdraw support to the BJP government, leaving it for the latter to punish his supporters at the cost of the survival of the Jagdish Shettar government.
All 45 MLAs, 10 MLCs, nine ministers and two others (also ministers), who are considered fence-sitters, attended a dinner Yeddyurrappa recently hosted.
Yeddyurrappa's supporters plan to leverage their membership of the ruling BJP for KJP's advantage. "It is better that they remain ministers till this government is in office and do some work for the people that will help them and the new party in future when they cross over at the right time," said a Yeddyurrappa loyalist who is all set to join the KJP.
Yeddyurrappa was offered the post of the state party president as late as last week, but has refused to go back on his plans to launch his own outfit.
The former CM has been at war with BJP ever since he was removed from the post of CM following charges of corruption against him.
Yeddyurrappa has applied for "bicycle" as a symbol for his new party, and has planned to contest all the 224 assembly seats in the state in next year's assembly election.
KJP recognizes that it cannot win a majority on its own. However, it aspires to emerge as a kingmaker on the basis of its hold among Lingayats. In fact, the optimists among Yeddyurrappa's supporters hope to bag at least 80 of a total of 224 seats, and to restrict Congress's tally to under 100 seats. The resultant "hung house-scenario" will help the KJP play the tie-breaker on its own terms seems to be the tactic.
Both JD(S) and KJP will try to tie up with B Sriramalu's BSR party, which is considered to have a good hold in about 10 seats in Karnataka.
The KJP has already charted out it strongholds and the weak areas for the party in the state. KJP considers Hyderabad-Karnataka and Bombay-Karnataka regions in the state as it strongest area with a good Lingayat population and hopes to pick up about 60 seats from there. With Karnataka broadly divided into four regions — coastal Karnataka, which is now held by BJP, will be difficult terrain for KJP, and South Karnataka that includes Bangalore, Mysore etc are also out of bounds for the Lingayat leader.
Yeddyurrappa to quit BJP on December 5, launch own outfit four days later
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Yeddyurrappa to quit BJP on December 5, launch own outfit four days later
