Amit Shah visits Karnataka BJP strongman Yediyurappa’s residence for breakfast meet
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is on an official visit to the city to attend various functions, on Friday met Karnataka BJP leader and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa for breakfast at his residence.
The meeting between the two leaders assumes significance as the Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the Assembly elections in Karnataka by May in the next few days.
Yeddyurappa, a member of the party’s parliamentary committee and its top decision-making body, had been touring the state in recent weeks as part of the ‘Vijaya Sankalpa Yatre’.
The breakfast meeting was attended by Chief Minister Basavaraj Boyam, state BJP president Nalin Kumar Katil, Karnataka in-charge general secretary Arun Singh, Yeddyurappa’s younger son and party’s state vice-president B Y Viayendra .
On reaching Yeddyurappa’s residence, Shah approached Yeddyurappa and first insisted on getting a bouquet from Vijayendar. He then patted Vijayendra on the back and accepted Yeddyurappa’s greetings.
Some within the party see this as a sign that Shah has acknowledged Vijayendra’s contribution to the party and that he may contest the upcoming assembly elections.
There were reports that Yeddyurappa was upset that his political successor, Vijayendar, was not given any important post in the party and was not made an MLC in the cabinet after he stepped down as chief minister. 2021.
In the same breath that he announced that he would not contest the assembly polls, Yeddyurappa also said that he would vacate his Shikaripura assembly seat, from which Vijayendra is contesting, if the high command agrees.
Vijayendra’s elder brother P Y Raghavendra Sivamogga is a BJP MP.
The BJP appears to be backing away from making its veteran batsman Yeddyurappa a key election icon as it, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ramps up its campaign in poll-bound Karnataka.
The reasons why Yeddyurappa was pushed to the top of the campaign are not far-fetched: a four-time chief minister who built the party from the grassroots, a mass appeal and a connection — especially with the politically influential Lingayat community — that no other party leader in the state commands.
