Karnataka CM Yediyurappa Resigns – Free PDF Download

What has happened?

• BS Yediyurappa on Monday announced he will step down as the Karnataka chief minister and said he will meet the governor after lunch and hand over his resignation.
• Yediyurappa was speaking at a programme that marked the celebration of two years of the BJP government in the state.
• “I have decided to resign,” a news agency quoted the Karnataka chief minister as saying. “I will meet the Governor after lunch.”
• Karnataka was rife with rumours earlier regarding the resignation of four-time chief minister BS Yediyurappa, who held a strong support base from the Lingayat community.
• The 77-year-old has already been dropping enough hints that he was on his way out,
• Though the politicians whose names are being speculated to take his stead have dismissed any such possibility and attributed such speculations to mere political rumours.
• Last week, Yediyurappa visited New Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, strengthening the speculation.
• After returning from New Delhi, Yediyurappa himself hinted at his exit and said he will work according to the instruction of the national leadership of the party which, as he said, he was supposed to receive on July 25.

Why resignation?

• “I’m resigning not out of pain, but happiness. A 75-year-old Yediyurappa was allowed to become the CM for two years. So, words can’t express my gratitude to PM Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda,” Yediyurappa said.
• “I pray with God that this Modi-Shah duo should win again. Modi and Shah should win, become PM and take the country forward,” he said.
• There is little clarity on who will replace Yediyurappa.

Lingayat in Karnataka Politics

• Amid speculation about a change of leadership in Karnataka, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, a Lingayat strongman, is receiving huge support, Not just from the Lingayat community but also from senior Congress leaders from the community and seers from various
• Lingayat mutts in the state.
• More than 100 seers of various Lingayat mutts across Karnataka met Yediyurappa and offered support to him and warned BJP of consequences if he was replaced.

Why does the Lingayat community matter to BJP?

• Lingayats are the state’s single largest community, at nearly 17% of the population, mostly in the north Karnataka region, and are known to include firm supporters of the BJP and Yediyurappa.
• The Lingayats, a Hindu Shaivite community, deify Basavanna who fought for equality in society.
• The community can determine the outcome of polls in as many as 90-100 of the state’s 224 assembly constituencies.

How did Lingayat move away from Congress?

• Until the 1990s, the Lingayats were largely voting the Congress party to power in the state.
• At the time, the Congress had been in government in Karnataka with its largest majority ever, 179 out of the 224 seats in the Assembly, because of the Lingayat votes mobilised by Veerendra Patil.
• The Congress also had a huge support from another dominant community, Vokkaliga.
• However, Congress’s decision at the time made the Lingayat community look for an alternative party.
• After incidents of communal violence broke out due to the Rath Yatra conducted for the Ram Janmabhoomi issue, the Patil government was dismissed by the then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi.
• Rajiv Gandhi announced the dismissal of the Chief Minister before boarding an aircraft at the Bengaluru HAL airport.
• This led Lingayat to move away from Congress, which eventually helped the BJP.

Rise of Yediyurappa

• After seeing the Patil government dismissal by Gandhi, the Lingayat community voted against the Congress in the next elections held in 1994 in which the Congress was reduced to 36 seats from the 179 seats.
• Most votes went to BJP, which saw its vote share increase from around 4% in the state to 17%.
• This also led to the rise of Yediyurappa as a Lingayat face in the state politics and BJP started to bank on Yeddyurappa’s stature in the Lingayat community.

Q) Lingayats are the followers of the 12th-century philosopher poet, Basaveshwara. Which of the following statements are correct?

1. Basaveshwara was against the caste system but supported Vedic rituals.
2. The Lingayats are strict monotheists.

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 & 2
4. None of he above

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