BJP Vice President of Karnataka and former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s son youngest B.Y. Vijayendra has expressed that he will contest the 2023 state assembly polls if the party’s central leadership gives its nod.
“There is no confusion, my father and former CM Yediyurappa has a very strong relationship with the Shikaripura constituency, so on the pressure from party leaders, workers and people of the constituency, he made an announcement. He also has said the party and its central leadership will decide,” Vijayendra told reporters in Koppal.
He maintained that the party leadership will take a decision at an appropriate time regarding his candidacy, and that Yediyurappa announcing him as candidate from the family bastion of Shikaripura for the polls, was under pressure from people there, which is subject to the party’s approval.
Signaling the end of his electoral politics, Yediyurappa, on last Friday, had said that he will be vacating his Shikaripura assembly seat in Shivamogga district, and that Vijayendra will be contesting the polls from there.
The Lingayat strongman, however, on Saturday clarified that only the party’s central leadership can decide on tickets to contest polls. Incidentally, the clarification came on a day when Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai met Yediyurappa at the latter’s residence.
Asked if a leader like Yediyurappa, who built the party in the state for decades, doesn’t have the independence to choose a political successor for his constituency, Vijayendra said, “This is BJP, a national party and there is no question of a successor in this party”.
“Yes, it is true that Yediyurappa strived for 30 to 40 years to build this party, the organization and its workers; in the same way, the BJP has also given position and respect to Yediyurappa. So, the party will utilize his service to strengthen itself further and come to power with a majority,” he added.
Yediyurappa, announcing his son as candidate from Shikaripura, is being seen as an attempt by the veteran leader to compel the party to give a ticket to Vijayendra for the assembly polls.
A section within the party feels that it may be an attempt by Yediyurappa to secure the political future of Vijayendra, after the recent ‘setback’ when he failed to get an MLC ticket for his son.
Ignoring the recommendation of the state unit to field Vijayendra for the 3 June biennial elections to seven seats of Karnataka Legislative Council, the party central leadership had denied him the ticket.
The move was seen by some in political quarters as a setback to Yediyurappa, as the senior leader wanted to see to it that Vijayendra becomes MLC and subsequently is inducted into the Bommai-led cabinet.