Son overlooked, Karnataka BJP leader Eshwarappa raises banner of revolt: Why Yediyurappa is his target

Alongside B S Yediyurappa, K S Eshwarappa is credited with being one of the leaders who helped build the BJP in Karnataka that is the only southern state to date where the party has come to power. With Yediyurappa’s power in the state BJP undimmed and Eshwarappa out in the cold, the rivalry seems set for another tumultuous chapter.

Eshwarappa is a former state BJP president, with his high point coming in 2012 when he became the state’s Deputy Chief Minister in the Jagadish Shettar-led government. But now out of favour with the party leadership — he stepped down from the state government in 2022 under the shadow of corruption allegations — and no Lok Sabha ticket for his son, Eshwarappa seems to have finally had enough and has raised the banner of revolt.

This is unlike last year when he quietly accepted the party’s decision to not field him in the Assembly polls as the party because the state leadership, including Yediyurappa, allegedly promised to give his son K E Kantesh a Lok Sabha ticket. Eshwarappa expected that Kanthesh would receive the ticket from Haveri but instead, the party chose to field former CM Basavaraj Bommai from the constituency.

To get back at Yediyurappa, Eshwarappa is thinking about contesting as a rebel candidate against the former CM’s son and incumbent Shivamogga MP B Y Raghavendra. Minutes after the BJP released its second list of candidates on Wednesday, including 20 names from Karnataka, Eshwarappa was the first to express his displeasure and hit out at Yedyiurappa and state BJP president B Y Vijayendra, another of the CM’s sons, saying that his followers were saying the family was controlling the party in the state.

“A year ago, B S Yediyurappa promised tickets to my son Kanthesh and also said he