Bharatiya Janata Party, Karnataka. or simply Karnataka BJP, is the Karnataka state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Karnataka BJP is a Far-right wing CommunalHindutva party.[2] Karnataka BJP never got a magic number on its own in elections; however, it managed to form a government in the state on multiple occasions with the JDS post-poll alliance or using the Operation Kamala method. To date, 4 chief ministers from the party have served the state; however, none of them completed a full term. They resigned midway due to corruption charges or internal fights within the party.[3] The current president of BJP Karnataka is B. Y. Vijayendra.
BJP contested 110 seats in the January 1983 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, winning 18 seats and obtained 7.9% of the votes cast across the state.[4][5] Out of its 110 candidates, 71 lost their deposits.[4] Along with the Andhra Pradesh legislative election there same year, this marked the first major performance of the party in southern India.[4] Nine out of the 18 BJP legislators came from the coastal districts.[6] The influence of BJP in Karnataka was marked by its inability to mobilize support in rural areas, where the Janata Dal leader Ramakrishna Hegde and Abdul Nazir Sab (Hegde's Rural Development Minister) had built a strong network of local Janata Dal leaders through the panchayat system.[6] After the 1983 election the BJP offered some outside support to the Hegde government.[6]
The party suffered a set-back in the 1985 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, only 2 of its 115 candidates were elected.[4] The party obtained 3.7% of the state-wide vote and 100 of its candidates lost their deposits.[4] The BJP’s journey is one of evolution, from a nascent political force to a powerful institution, from a unifying voice to a catalyst for change.
The 1980s was characterized by internal strife in the BJP Karnataka unit, as the followers of Ananth Kumar and V. Dhananjay Kumar combatted each other.[7] Ananth Kumar was the secretary of the Karnataka BJP unit 1987–1988.[8] In 1988, trying to overcome the split, B. S. Yediyurappa was chosen as the consensus candidate for the presidency of the BJP Karnataka state unit.[7] BJP contested 119 seats in the 1989 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, winning four seats and obtaining 4.13% of the votes cast across the state.[9]
BJP obtained 28.8% of the votes in Karnataka in the 1991 Indian general election.[10] This result marked a sharp increase from the 2.5% of the votes that the party had received in the 1989 Indian general election in Karnataka.[11] This time BJP had contested all 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, winning four.[12] The growth of BJP vote in Karnataka was partially due to the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign and the nationalist discourse of the party.[12]
BJP fielded 223 candidates in the 1994 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election.[9] Ahead of the election the party state unit published a 41-page manifesto, seeking to portray a pragmatic and populist approach of the party with a focus on socio-economic issues rather than communalist discourse.[13] After the 1994 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, BJP held the role as Leader of Opposition in the assembly for a brief period.[10] The electoral result had an important symbolic meaning for the BJP, who had begun to see Karnataka as its 'gateway' into south India.[11]
By the late 1990s, Karnataka was the sole state in southern India where BJP wasn't a marginal political phenomenon.[13][14] During this period, the anti-reservation stance of BJP in response to the Mandal Commission had attracted support among higher castes in Karnataka, rather than Hindutva nationalism per se.[13] The 1999 split in the Janata Dal offered the BJP the possibility to do inroads among Lingayat voters.[6] However, as of the late 1990s the BJP Karnataka state organization remained weak, with the strength of the party concentrated in urban pockets and a few rural pockets (Coorg and the two coastal districts).[10] In the 1998 Lok Sabha parliamentary election, BJP increased its number of seats in Karnataka from six to 13.[15][16] BJP had contested the election in coalition with Lok Shakti, through which BJP had contested 18 seats and Lok Shakti 10 seats.[17][16] With Lok Shakti's Hegde campaigning for the BJP, the party was somewhat able to portray a more moderate image and tone down its Hindutva profile.[16]
Just before the 1999 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, the BJP national leadership forced its Karnataka branch into an alliance with the then governing Janata Dal (United).[10][18] Thus the party could not benefit from the anti-incumbency wave against the Janata Dal cabinet.[10] The tie-up with the Janata Dal (United) was unpopular among BJP workers in the state.[19] Following the 1999 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election the party obtained the Leader of Opposition role again.[10]
The more significant breakthrough of BJP as a major actor in Karnataka state politics came in 2004.[10] In the 2004 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, the party won 71 out of 224 seats.[6] Whilst BJP remained organizationally weak in rural Karnataka, it managed to increase its share of vote by attracting Lingayat voters from parts of northern Karnataka.[10][6] In the 2004 Lok Sabha parliamentary election, BJP won 18 seats from Karnataka.[6] BJP had become the largest party in the state assembly, but could not form a government as the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress Party formed a coalition.[10] The JD(S)-Congress coalition, however, suffered internal strife and in 2006 H.D Kumarswami struck a deal with BJP which stipulated that the post of Chief Minister would be given to BJP after a 20-month period.[6] In 2007, when the 20 months had passed, H.D Kumarswami opted to retain the position, sparking outcry and a wave of sympathy towards BJP and B. S. Yediyurappa.[6][20]
The strength of BJP in Karnataka state politics increased significantly between October 2007 and April 2009.[6] Ahead of the 2008 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, BJP had emerged as the sole viable alternative to the Janata Dal (S) and the Congress Party in Karnataka state politics.[19] Following the formation of the BJP state government in 2008, there was a wave of attacks on Christian churches in Karnataka.[21] The National Commission for Minorities denounced the BJP state governments for inaction in preventing the attacks.[21] Under pressure from the central government, the BJP state government arrested a number of Shri Ram Sena leaders.[21]
In the 2013 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, the BJP fell to third place in the state behind the Indian National Congress and Janata Dal (Secular). While the INC won a majority in the Legislative Assembly with 122 seats, the BJP fell to 40 seats.
The decision of the Congress state government to grant minority status to the Lingayats prompted the RSS (a move seen by RSS as "an attempt to divide the Hindus") to take a more active role in supporting the BJP in the 2018 state elections.[22] RSS brought in senior leaders from across the country for the state election campaign.[22] Reportedly some 50,000 RSS cadres campaigned for BJP, as well as some 3,000 Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal cadres.[22] RSS mobilization for BJP in the electoral campaign was particularly strong in the coastal districts (a stronghold of RSS, but also an area with sizable Christian and Muslim populations).[22]
Support base
For many years, the BJP support base was mainly Brahmins & Jains but in 1990's it expanded to include Lingayats and Vokkaligas.[9][19] Most of the party state leadership is either OBCs or Brahmins.[19] By the 2000s, the party had sought support from Dalits utilizing Hindutva as mobilizing factor (albeit with limited success).[19] The party has support base mainly in the coastal districts of the state especially Udupi and Dakshina Kannada. The party has consistently maintained support in the urban centres of Karnataka.[23]
S. Mallikarjunaiah was the vice president of the BJP Karnataka state unit between 1980 and 1986.[24] He again held the post as BJP Karnataka state unit vice president 1990–1991.[24]
Nalin Kumar Kateel was appointed as the president of the Karnataka state unit of BJP on August 20, 2019.[25] Reportedly the outgoing president B. S. Yediyurappa had favoured Arvind Limbavali for the post, but the National General Secretary (Organisation) of the party B.L. Santosh had favoured Kateel due to his credentials as a RSS loyalist.[25] Soon after taking over as state unit president Kateel named Bhanuprakash and Nirmal Kumar Surana as Vice Presidents of the BJP state unit.[26] The two leaders, seen as part of the 'old guard' of the party, had been ousted from the state leadership in 2016.[26]
Operation Kamala, also known as Operation Lotus is a term coined in 2008, when India's former minister G. Janardhana Reddy in the state of Karnataka, used various strategies, including persuasion and financial incentives to secure support from legislators bypassing the anti-defection law, so as to take the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) past the majority number.[37][38][39][40][41] Operation Lotus refers to "poaching" or "bribing" of MLAs and MPs of other parties by the BJP, mainly of their rival the Indian National Congress party (INC), often to form government in states where they do not have the majority.[42]
2008
The BJP won 110 seats in the assembly elections in May 2008, falling three seats short of a simple majority. With the backing of six independents, Yeddyurappa took the oath of office as chief minister to establish the first BJP administration in south India. But to further secure the stability of the administration, the BJP lured seven MLAs—three from the Congress and four from the JD(S) in an operation purportedly funded by mining tycoon and former BJP minister Janardhan Reddy of Bellary—by offering them money and power. The BJP scored five victories in the by-elections, bringing its total in the 224-member assembly to 115. Operation Kamala eventually became the name of the entire exercise.[43]
Ramesh Jarkiholi organized 14 other Congress MLAs to resign their posts.[47]Ramesh Jarkiholi was one of the 15 MLAs from Congress and 2 from JD(S) who resigned in July 2019, bringing down the HDK Congress-JD(S) coalition and allowing B.S. Yeddyurappa (BSY) to return to power.[48] After Supreme Court ruling held up their disqualification but allowed them to run, Jarkiholi joined BJP along with all other rebels inducted by Yeddyurappa and other important persons.[49][50][51][52][53]
Investigations
On 31 March 2021, the bench of Justice D'Cunha refused to quash the FIR against the sitting Chief Minister of Karnataka B. S. Yediyurappa in a case nicknamed Operation Kamala case.[54] At the time of the alleged incident, Yediyurappa was the leader of opposition.[55]
Reactions
In an interview with Deccan Herald in March 2019, B. S. Yediyurappa said "Operation Kamala was not wrong and I don't regret it. It is part of democracy."[56][57]
Lehar Singh Siroya claimed that the BJP cadre in the State was “by and large against the Operation Kamala” as that would not help the party in the long term.[58]
H. D. Kumaraswamy alleged that the BJP used Operation Kamala to affect the defections of MLAs from his government, causing it to fall.
St Ann's Friary Grotto after it was desecrated on 14 September
The 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka were the wave of attacks directed against Christian churches and prayer halls in the Indian city of Mangalore and the surrounding area of southern Karnataka in September and October 2008 by Hindutva organisations such as Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sena. The attacks were widely perceived by Christians in southern Karnataka to be revenge from far right-wing Hindutva organisations, because Mangalorean Christians had been outspoken about the 2008 anti-Christian attacks in Orissa. The Christian community of Mangalore accused the police of doing nothing to prevent attacks by Hindu radicals. Mangalore Police Superintendent N. Satheesh Kumar himself admitted that the police did have information that pro-Hindu organisations were planning to attack Christian places of worship in the district, but failed to do anything about it.[59] The Christian community accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led state government for involvement in the attacks and backing the anti-Christian campaigns.[59] In response to the report that the police had information, Fr. Henry Sequeira, chancellor of the Mangalore Diocese said, "If the police knew about this in advance and still could not prevent the attacks, then we have no hope."[59]
The 2021 anti-Christian violence in Karnataka refers to the series of violence against Christians by right wingHindutva groups in the Indian state of Karnataka during 2021 with the support of BJP led state government. The number of vigilantism increased after Basavaraj Bommai took office as the Chief minister of Karnataka in July 2021.[60] According to the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum, over 120 communal incidents occurred in the districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada of Coastal Karnataka in 2021, the highest number in the previous four years.[61] The violence again intensified over the Christmas period when right-wing mobs disrupted Christmas celebrations.[62][63] The Human rights organisation, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) documented 39 violent incidents against Christians in Karnataka from January to November 2021, all carried out by Hindutva organizations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Hindu Jagrana Vedike, Bajrang Dal, and Banjara Nigama.[64][65][66] The violence included physical assaults, sexual assaults against women, church vandalism, filming the attacks and later circulating the videos to celebrate.[67][68]
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