The Bharatiya Janata Party has expelled KS Eshwarappa, who is contesting as an independent, from the party for six years.
Eshwarappa’s expulsion comes in the wake of his decision to contest as an independent after the party refused to give his son KE Kanthesh the ticket for the Haveri-Gadag seat, and instead fielded Lingayat leader and former CM Basavaraj Bommai. Eshwarappa has said that Yediyurappa had assured him that Kantesh would be given the seat.
After the announcement of the Haveri-Gadag seat, Eshwarappa has openly and strongly criticised BS Yediyurappa, whom he accused of furthering dynastic politics. Yediyurappa’s younger son BY Vijayendra is now president of the state unit of the BJP while his older son is seeking re-election from the Shivamogga parliamentary seat.
Eshwarappa skipped Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Shivamogga in March, and visited several mutts instead. Three weeks later, Eshwarappa was scheduled to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi but the latter called off the meeting. He said that Shah was indirectly telling him to contested the elections.
The former deputy CM caused quite a stir when he found a lookalike of the prime minister to campaign for him, after the BJP initiated legal action against him for using the PM’s pictures in his poll campaign.
Yediyurappa, a Lingayat, and Eshwarappa, a Kuruba, built the BJP in Karnataka, starting with Shivamogga district, where they both hail from. They were once so close that people called them Lava-Kusha, after the names of twin sons of the god Rama. Over the years, their relationship has reportedly turned sour.