The battle between Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Dr Yathindra and the son of the BJP's chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa BY Vijayendra which was considered to be a tough contest between the next generation of the two political foes faded out after Yeddyurappa made a surprise announcement that his son would not file his nomination.
Speaking to DNA, Vijayendra, who is campaigning for the BJP in Mysuru, said the decision was taken at the behest of the party leadership, and said that this move could have been prompted by the BJP's charge of dynastic politics against the Congress.
He denied that there were moves in the BJP to undercut the influence of his father or sideline him, and admitted that the denial of his nomination from Varuna had initially led to a 'large-scale resentment' though things settled down with time. Vijayendra's decision to not file nomination had led to protests by workers.
Saying that the BJP high-command had asked for his nomination to be dropped, Vijayendra said, "Frankly speaking, I did not bother to find out the reason. It is important that the BJP must come to power with an absolute majority for five years."
"It was a collective decision. Being the party's decision, everyone has to follow it," he said in reply to who within the BJP leadership had sought his withdrawal from the fray.
"This might be one of the reasons. BJP opposes dynastic politics... It is also the party's policy since day one," said Vijayendra, while adding that the churn within the BJP over his nomination was a 'closed chapter'.
Vijayendra denied attempts to cut his fathers influence by projecting leaders like Lok Sabha MP B Sriramalu, who belongs to the Valmiki Nayaka community and is fighting against Siddaramaiah from Badami. "The BJP is not the Congress; the high-command respects local sentiments... Yeddyurappa is the chief ministerial candidate because of the ground realities," he said and added that his father would remain the chief minister for five years if the BJP was voted to power.
Vijayendra said the Congress government's decision to grant religious minority status to the dominant Lingayat community would work against it. The Lingayats are estimated at around 17 per cent of the population, and Yeddyurappa is seen as the tallest leader of the community. The religious minority decision was seen as an attempt to cut into this crucial vote bank, but Vijayendra claimed it would lead to a backlash from Lingayats as well as from other social groups.
