Bharatiya Janata Party chief and the party’s chief ministerial face BS Yeddyurappa was one of the first members of the party to file his nomination papers on Thursday for the May 12 election.
Speaking to reporters, a confident-sounding Yeddyurappa, who is now 75-years-old, said, “I have come to file my nominations and I am going to get a minimum lead of 30,000-40,00 votes.”
Yeddyurappa was flanked by current MLA and his son BY Raghavendra, Union Minister Ananth Kumar and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh as he went to the taluk office to submit his documents.
Not only was he flanked by Raman Singh, but the party’s social media team also ensured that #BSYforCM was the top trend on Twitter.
The saffron party’s social media army asked its members and volunteers to bombard their feeds with curated tweets praising the senior leader on the micro-blogging platform from 10:15 am, and, by 10:30 am, it became the top trend .
Fall in income
In his election affidavit, Yeddyurappa declared an income of Rs 12,33,313, which is about Rs 3 lakh less than the income he declared during 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Then, he had declared an income of Rs 15,26,828. The affidavit also mentions that he owns multiple vehicles, including two Toyota Fortuners.
In 2014, he had declared his cash in hand as Rs 7,71,000, but now it has fallen to Rs 1,01,145.
His affidavit also mentions his total bank savings as Rs 16,60,174 and his fixed deposits total to Rs 18,08,321.
His total moveable assets have been declared as Rs 71,300,40. He also owns Rs 53,74,875 worth of agricultural land and commercial buildings worth Rs 68,788,30. He also owns Rs 1.09 crore worth of jewellery. His total assets amount to a little less than Rs 2 crore, according to his declaration.
His liabilities amount to Rs 2.53 lakh.
In his 2014 affidavit, he had said that he owns Rs 11,09,640 worth of agricultural land and no commercial buildings. His total movable assets totalled to Rs 1,91,33,447 and the total value of immovable assets was Rs 4,90,12,820 in 2014.
His affidavit for the upcoming polls declared that his spouse has zero income or assets.
There are three criminal cases stacked against him. Charges include criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, transfer of land which is subject matters of acquisition proceedings, criminal conspiracy and undue influence of elections.
Political career
Yeddyurappa, who is also currently the MP from Shivamogga, and served as CM previously, won the seat from Shikaripura in 1983 for the first time. Prior to his victory in the state elections, he had been a councillor and president of the municipal council in the past.
He had subsequently emerged victorious in the 1985, 1989, 1994, 2004 and 2008 Assembly elections too and became the party’s State President in 1988.
Lingayat strongman Yeddyurappa had taken oath as the first BJP CM headlining a coalition government in south India in 2007 only for the Assembly to be dissolved soon after. In the 2008 elections, he won with a huge margin to become the CM.
But in the third year of his second term, he had to step down following an indictment by then Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde in an illegal mining case.
He had floated his own outfit, Karnataka Janata Paksha after he was ousted from the BJP on charges of corruption. In 2014, he came back to the party fold to win the Lok Sabha elections.