BJP also has a long list of claimants for CM's post

Bengaluru/Mangaluru: Whoever said BJP's top leadership was above the hunger for power must take a look at the long line-up of leaders for the plum post of Chief Minister. It could be recalled here that there were three CMs in just one term in the past BS Yeddyurappa, Jagadish Shettar and Sadananda Gowda between 2008 to 2013 which was in fact cost the party the driver's seat in 2013 elections. Even in 2018 when the BJP got the power in the state there were two Chief Ministers BSY and Basavaraj Bommai.

This did not have good tidings with the party's central leadership, Amit Shah did not like it a bit and had chided and even admonished the state leadership to put their house in order, the party does not like to make governments in the state with the help of migrant human resources.

While the party used social media blitzkrieg to highlight the fight for CM's post between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar from late 2021 to mid-2022, its own house is now filled with aspirants for CM's post. Though there is no public display of this intense movement, within the party inside the inner circles the BJP has more number of people than the Congress to vie for the post.

The count includes Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, CT Ravi, Murugesh Nirani, Nalin Kumar Kateel, Basavaraj Bommai, Sunil Kumar and somewhere down the line is also Vijendra, son of BS Yeddyurappa. But over and above this list is the name of Ananth Kumar Hegde, MP from Uttara Kannada. Whether or not they will have an open slug fest in the coming days, but the party surely may not have so easily put somebody on the throne.

Basanagouda Patil had indicated that he will throw his hat into the ring when the time arrived and he is such a big Lingayat leader who has created a sway in the Kalyana Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka among the cadres and second line leaders it could recalled here that he had landed the BJP government -the first BJP government in the South in trouble giving statements against his own party.

CT Ravi a strong Vokkaliga leader and coming the RSS cadres is also playing his cards close to his chest. He also wears a halo for sacrificing his ministership and went on to party work in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Nalin Kumar Kateel became an MP right out of the ABVP cadres he did not even become an MLA. Sunil Kumar MLA from Karkala is known to be a hardcore RSS card holder and man bigwigs of RSS are backing him to the Chief Minister's post.

The shock to all these leaders came from the firebrand RSS leader and thrice MP and two times union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde when he announced he would contest from Kumta. He has given birth to the narrative - "I do not want the votes of minorities to win. If I am not able to win with the votes of Hindus it is better not to win". This narrative has gone down to many BJP leaders and flashes of this narrative now and then in the state.

But then there is Basavaraj Bommai. The official election campaign material of the BJP for the Karnataka elections, the promo material that has surfaced in recent times, shows Bommai along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi emblazoned with the slogan 'Mathomme Bommai' (Bommai once again in Kannada). a chain of links on social media and YouTube has already cranked up the campaign for Bommai to post again in 2023.