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BJP national president Amith Shah has reiterated that BJP State President B S Yeddyurappa would be the chief ministerial candidate for the 2018 assembly elections. This implies that the responsibility of Yeddyurappa is much more than other leaders in his party. Yeddyurappa, a seasoned politician, knows there is a lot of hard work involved to reach the goal - Mission 155+.

Yeddyurappa’s walk and talk has been going on from May 18. Under the mass contact programme, he has so far covered six districts. He will resume this pre-election campaign exercise from May 29 from Koppal. He is yet to cover 26 districts. If the programme was confined itself to meeting and interacting with people, probably Yeddyurappa would not have been debated by his detractors in the last one week.

In addition to the meeting, he is also eating. He has chosen Dalit houses to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This has given fodder for his opponents as well as the media to comment, debate, discuss and ridicule the exercise. Has Yeddyurappa gone wrong in planning this programme? It would be incorrect to say that he has decided to take up the ‘Walk up to Dalits’ programme. Because, he is only implementing the party’s nation-wide programme. Then why he is at the receiving end?

PUBLICITY
Yeddyurappa, if he had just visited Dalits’ houses, colonies and interacted with the oppressed classes then probably he would not have been the butt of criticism to this extent. To make the matter worse for him, he not only began eating food but also took wide publicity for the same. This made his critics to ask as to why all these years the BJP and its leader did not bother to visit Dalits.

His senior colleagues say that Yeddyurappa should not have projected as it was his maiden venture into Dalits colonies. Also, he should not have made eating a major agenda. He should have selected the houses random and surprised the occupants. He should have accepted whatever food offered to him during his unscheduled visits. This is what many elected representatives do during their constituency visit.

To send the right message, one need not adopt populist measure or overtly theatrical approach. Words, conduct and action matters. People can see through one’s intentions. Yeddyurappa may mean good but they were not reflected the manner in which the whole exercise is being carried out.

It is not that Yeddyurappa is not eating or he is averse to eating in houses of Oppressed classes. He, per se, is not casteist. But the hosts, who are not BJP workers, are finding tough to prepare or provide food to dozens of BJP leaders and workers who walk into the houses along with Yeddurappa. This is also forcing the house occupants or party workers to buy food in hotels. This is what happened in case of his visit to a Dalit’s house for breakfast in Tumakuru. When the host fell short of food, Thatte Idlis were bought from hotels, the party insiders point out.

LONE WALKER
Forget the food diplomacy going awry, Yeddyurappa has become the lone walker. Of course barring a couple of members of his coterie, none are defending his actions. The Janasamparka Sabhe (meeting with the public) in Tumakuru began on the right note. Senior leaders including Ananth Kumar, D V Sadananda Gowda and K S Eshwarappa shared the dais with him. But later they dispersed. Yeddyurappa and Party General Secretary Shobha Karandlaje had announced that at least one union minister from the State would be participating in the public contact programme. Forget walking along with him, none of the seniors defended when Yeddyurappa was mocked. However, Yeddyurappa argues that it is impractical to expect senior leaders to accompany him because they are pre-occupied with their office and constituency work.

Yeddyurappa also had announced that during his interaction programmes, he would visit drought-hit places and listen to the grievances of the farmers. Probably he would not have done it had he not taken the weather forecast seriously. Many districts have been receiving normal pre-monsoon showers. As Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ridiculed, Yeddyurappa should be carrying an umbrella while visiting drought-hit areas.

The fact remains that unlike Yeddyurappa, none of the seniors are ready to give their quality time to the party work. This is one of the reasons as to why Lingayat strongman Yeddyurappa is more appealing to the central leadership. For all the confidence the central leaders have in him, he should have better maturity in thinking and implementing programmes, many in the party feel.

Frontline leaders in the BJP are not only banking on Yeddyurappa but also hoping that Party national president Amit Shah would come to Karnataka and make the party miraculously win the elections. They believe that chanting Modi mantra and projecting his three years’ achievements at the Centre would help in convincing people as to why Yeddyurappa should become chief minister again. That would be asking for too much from voters.