B. Y. Vijayendra

Some Lesser Known Facts About B. Y. Vijayendra

• B. Y. Vijayendra is an Indian politician. He was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was the secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha’s Bengaluru unit in 2009. Vijayendra became the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in 2018. In 2020, he was named the state vice president of the Bharatiya Janata party in Karnataka. Vijayendra was the youngest son of the Indian politician BJP member B. S. Yediyurappa, who served as the 13th chief minister of Karnataka. In May 2023, he was elected as the MLA from the Shikaripura assembly constituency in Karnataka by a margin of 11,008 votes.

• His mother, Mythra Devi, died in October 2004. Some reports suggested that she drowned in an eight-foot-deep water tank in front of their house after she accidentally slipped into it. A local court ordered a fresh probe to reinvestigate her death in 2009 after a petition was filed by a lawyer Sheshadri. The petitioner, Sheshadri, alleged that the evidence was fabricated and accused seven people, including Yediyurappa, his three children, and two servants, were behind Mythra Devi’s death. Sheshadri, in his petition, pointed out that Mythra, who was five feet and five inches tall, could not have drowned in a tank with only 4 feet of water.

• In 2018, some reports suggested that Vijayendra would contest the 2018 Karnataka legislative assembly election from the Varuna assembly constituency against Yathindra Siddaramaiah, son of former Karnataka chief minister and veteran INC leader Siddaramaiah; however, the BJP leadership decided not to field Vijayendra from the Varuna assembly constituency on the day of submitting the nomination.

  

• On 24 April 2018, the BJP high command appointed Vijayendra as the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). The decision came one day after he was omitted from the list of BJP candidates for the Karnataka legislative assembly election.

• Later, the Karnataka BJP-state leadership made him in charge of the Sira assembly constituency bye-election in 2018. The constituency was never a BJP stronghold, and Vijayendra needed to ensure the BJP’s victory to cement his position in the party. Some reports suggested he camped at the constituency a month before the election campaigns began and worked on the grass-root level to turn the tide in favour of the BJP; the BJP candidate won the election by a margin of 13,000 votes and recorded the party’s first-ever victory from the constituency.

  

• The politician was made in charge of the KR Pete assembly constituency bye-election in 2019; BJP never registered a victory in any of the previous legislative assembly elections from the constituency. Vijayendra’s strategic planning was instrumental in the victory of the BJP candidate Narayan Gowda. Gowda won by a margin of 9731 votes against the JDS candidate B. L. Devraj.

• Vijayendra organized many protests against corruption and anti-farmer bills when he was the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). In June 2019, during a protest demanding a CBI probe into the IMA scam, the police arrested and forcefully removed the protestors.

  

• In 2020, many BJP leaders, ministers, and opposition party leaders alleged that Vijayendra was the de facto chief minister of the state instead of his father. Some reports suggested that party MLAs were forced to go through him before they could discuss their concerns or issues with the CM. Many of the BJP leaders alleged that the chief minister handed his son a free hand in all the administrative duties; however, Vijayendra denied all these rumours and stated that he only helped his father, who struggled due to age-related issues.

• On 1 April 2020, the politician was named the State Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka. ^[6]NDTV Later, he was appointed convenor to organise district-level conventions of seven morchas under the BJP ahead of the 2023 Karnataka legislative assembly election.

• His brother, Raghavendra, was the managing trustee of PES Institute of Technology and Management, Shimoga, Karnataka.

  

• Initially, Yediyurappa was against bringing anyone from his family into politics; however, after both his sons entered politics, many veteran leaders in the BJP accused him of nepotism and alleged that he tried to promote his son, Vijayendra, in the party by unjust methods.

• His father, B. S. Yediyurappa, became the chief minister of Karnataka four times but did not complete a full term in office.

• Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a prohibition on entering the temples during the lockdown in Karnataka. Reportedly a complaint was registered against him in May 2021 for allegedly entering a temple and offering puja with his wife during the lockdown. The Karnataka High Court bench, who heard the petition, instructed the State government to ensure no exception is made for anyone on entry into temples during the ban period.

  

• The relationship between him and his father was not always smooth. In 2010, his father, B. S. Yediyurappa, asked B. Y. Vijayendra and his sister, S. Y. Umadevi, leave his home after allegations of using their father’s name to get government work done. In an interview, the former chief minister said he decided to remove himself from the selfish people around him, so he told his son and daughter to leave his home. ^[7]The News Minute

• On 22 July 2022, while addressing a gathering at Anjanapura, Shikaripur, Shimoga, Yediyurappa said that he would not contest in the 2023 Karnataka legislative assembly election from the Shikaripura assembly constituency. He added that the BJP would field his son, Vijayendra, from the constituency and requested the voters to extend their support to his son as they have done for him. The veteran leader’s comments did not go well among the BJP state leadership and high command, many leaders came forward and criticized Yediyurappa for trying to establish his son as his successor in the party. One day later, in an interview, Yediyurappa went back on his statement and pointed out that the final decision rested with the party’s high command and added that he merely suggested Vijayendra’s candidacy.

  

• The former union minister of state and veteran BJP leader, Basangouda Patil Yatnal, was a strong castigator of the former chief minister and his son. Yatnal continued his criticism even when he was served with multiple disciplinary warnings by the party. Basangouda alleged that the show-cause notices were used to silence the BJP leaders and MLAs from speaking against the CM and his son. In February 2021, Basangouda accused B. S. Yediyurappa and B. Y. Vijayendra tried to divide the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community for their political gain and stated that the former chief minister did so whenever he felt his position in the party was threatened; he accused that the then BJP state vice president, Vijayendra, worked along with his father’s line of divisive politics.

• In July 2021, Vijayendra, in an interview, said that Yediyurappa would complete his tenure as the Karnataka chief minister. Basangouda Yatnal was upset with Vijayendra’s statement and Yatnal lambasted him. Yatnal pointed out that Yediyurappa would be removed from the post before the completion of the tenure and added that nobody would remain in power forever. Some reports suggested that Yatnal started targetting the CM and his son following his omission from the cabinet expansion of 2021 despite being a senior leader in the party.

• Following the decision of the BJP high command to not field Vijayendra in the 2018 Karnataka legislative assembly elections, and the 2019 bye-elections, it was speculated that he would contest the legislative council polls in May 2022 on a BJP ticket; however, the BJP high command snubbed him again and denied a party ticket. Some reports suggested that the move was to minimise the influence of Yediyurappa in the party. Later, in an interview, Yediyurappa played down Vijayendra’s omission and said that the high command would vest bigger opportunities to his son within the party.

  

• Before the BJP published its official list of candidates for the Karnataka legislative assembly election in 2023, Yediyurappa reiterated his statements about Vijayendra’s candidacy. On 15 March 2023, then BJP National General Secretary C. T. Ravi, in an interview, said it was only after analysing different factors, such as winnability and surveys the party’s parliamentary board decided on candidates to field from the assembly constituencies of the state. He pointed out that the party’s parliamentary board was the only authority that would name candidates, and neither anyone was an automatic choice in the BJP nor would a person be announced as a candidate after discussing in their home as opposed to other parties. Later, following heavy speculation that he was targeting the former chief minister and his son, Ravi clarified that his comments were not meant against Vijayendra.

• In 2023, he was fielded by the BJP from the Shikaripura assembly constituency in Karnataka, and Vijayendra defeated the independent candidate Nagarajagowda by a margin of 11,008 votes. His father, Yediyurappa, represented the Shikaripura assembly constituency for nearly 40 years.