Yeddyurappa ouster: What an ignominious fall!

As leader of the opposition, when Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa stood to speak, it was said, ‘When Yeddyurappa roars, the Vidhana Soudha shivers’. After 35 years in politics, the man who led the BJP’s first government in south India is a disgraced man. His ouster is a blow not just for the man and his party, but also to Indian democracy.

Known for his cycle jathas (tours) espousing the cause of farmers, Yeddyurappa took oath in the name of farmers in 2008, when he led the BJP to victory in the state on its own strength. The BJP had come a long way, from being a two-member party in the legislative assembly.

As Yeddyurappa is forced out of office, he paints the sorry picture of a man who has succumbed to the lure of ill-gotten wealth, a far cry from his humble beginnings.

Born on February 27, 1943, at Bookanakere village, Mandya district, hardship and toil were Yeddyurappa’s lot in childhood. His mother Puttathayamma died when he was only four years old. It was with great perseverance that Yeddyurappa graduated in the arts.

He joined the state government as a first-division clerk in the social welfare department in 1965. He soon shifted to Shikaripur, where he joined a rice mill owned by Veerabhadra Shastri. He married Shastri’s daughter Maithra Devi in 1967, a matrimonial alliance that proved a turning point.

Yeddyurappa was an active worker of the Rashtriya Swayam sevak Sangh (RSS). He was rewarded with the post of secretary of the Shikaripur unit of RSS in 1970. In 1975, he was elected president of the town municipality of Shikaripur. During the Emergency (1975-77), he was imprisoned and lodged in Bellary and Shimoga jails.

With lessons in leadership  from the RSS, Yeddyurappa led mass movements, highlighting the problems of landless farmers and bonded labourers. He undertook a padayatra, to highlight the plight of bonded labourers, leading a group of such labourers from Shikaripur to Shimoga in 1981.

His championing of the cause  of the landless and the powerless brought him victory in elections. In 1983, he entered the state legislative assembly. 

Though the BJP had 18 seats in the assembly in 1983 and propped up the Ramakrishna Hegde government, it was reduced to a two-member contingent in the elections of 1985. The credit for transforming the BJP from that two-man team to 117-strong, and forming the first BJP government in south India, goes to Yeddyurappa.

He won five elections from Shikaripur, losing only once, in 1999. He has twice served as state president of the BJP. In 1992, he was also national secretary of the party. It took 25 years of hard work for this father of two sons and three daughters to transform from a leader of the opposition to the man in power.

In 2006, the BJP entered into a coalition with the JD(S) to form the government. Little did Yeddyurappa anticipate that his new friends in politics would ditch him when it came time for him to assume the chief minister’s position in November 2007. With HD Kumaraswamy reneging on his promise of sharing power, Yeddyurappa’s stint as chief minister ended in just one week.

An angry Yeddyurappa stormed back to power after the elections of 2008, with the support of five independents. Shedding all scruples, Yeddyurappa launched ‘Operation Lotus’ to bolster the BJP’s strength in the assembly, with the help of the Reddys of Bellary.

A reputation for being a principled would crumble, as the man held to power with great tenacity.  Yeddyurappa will now be remembered for land scams, dubious financial dealings, and recklessly plundering the state’s resources.

Yeddyurappa lacked shrewdness in his choice of political friends. Close confidants turned nemeses. Yeddyurappa’s strong following among the Lingayats saw the party high command backing him in the past.

But ultimately, there is no arguing with the laboriously researched evidence that the Lokayukta has put together.