This is the third part of a 3-part series by Nalin Mehta on the Karnataka elections. Reading Part – 1 and here part 2 Here.
It was a political decision taken by Rajiv Gandhi three decades ago, but it remains a major talking point in Karnataka elections 2023. Few may remember Virendra Patil today, but his unceremonious dismissal as Chief Minister of Karnataka in 1990 paved the way for the BJP’s first onslaught. in the state in the 1990s, with the state’s influential Lingayat voters.
Now, in 2023, with the BJP aiming to secure its Lingayat vote-base and the Congress trying to make inroads into its stronghold, Virendra Patil’s story is coming up again and again on the campaign trail.
With the Congress accusing the BJP of neglecting Lingayats, who constitute 17-19% of the state’s voters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi The Virendra Patil incident has been repeated time and again during the Karnataka election campaign. “History is proof of how leaders like S Nijalingappa and Virendra Patil Yes He was insulted in front of the Congress family,” argued Modi at a recent event in Belagavi. Since then Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also kept the same point.
So, who exactly was Virendra Patil? And why does his name matter in the current political discourse?
Veerendra Patil, Rajiv Gandhi and BJP’s First Lingayat Breach in Karnataka
Virendra Patil was the Congress Chief Minister of Karnataka at the time of the great Congress split of 1969. He chose to quit the party along with former two-time chief minister S Nijalingappa. Patil remained as Chief Minister of Karnataka in the Congress (O), formed in opposition to Indira Gandhi’s Congress (I), before losing the election in 1972.
After the Emergency, when Indira Gandhi contested a by-election from Chikmagalur in Karnataka in 1978, Patil, who had by then switched to the Janata Party, was chosen to stand against her. Indira won easily, gave birth to the famous election sloganEk Sherni Sau Langur, Chikmagalur Bhai Chikmagalur‘ (One Tigress, 100 Langurs, Chikmagalur Bhai Chikmagalur).
In 1980, when Indira Gandhi returned to power, Patil was among the Lingayat leaders who returned to the Congress. As part of the Congress’ outreach to Lingayat voters, Patil was again appointed Chief Minister of Karnataka in 1989. This was the first time a Congress Lingayat leader was given such top leadership in two decades.
His subsequent unceremonious ouster from power by Rajiv Gandhi in 1990, likewise, came to signal a turning point in Karnataka politics.
This was seen by many in the community as an insult to Lingayat pride and marked the beginning of the BJP’s first dent in the community’s vote. A year later, in the parliamentary elections, it gave the party its first victory in Karnataka.
In October 1990, communal riots broke out in parts of Karnataka. Patil, who recently suffered a minor stroke, was resting at home. Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi, who had recently lost the 1989 elections, decided to make a sudden, ‘unexpected’ visit to Bangalore to take stock and cut short the Sadbhavna Yatra he had started in North India.
On 7 October, after a helicopter ride to the riot-hit city of Channapatna, he met Patil at his home and flew back to Bangalore airport to board a chartered plane. Gandhi met reporters waiting outside the VIP lounge of the airport.
One of them asked him when the state government would start functioning properly. Gandhi replied, “In four days”. Before the shocking announcement could be fully digested, he said that the Congress Legislature Party would meet in a few days to “elect a new leader” and that Patil was “really not well” and had “agreed to step down”. As he bid farewell, Rajiv Gandhi said, “You have a good copy”.
No doubt Gandhi hoped that the transition would go smoothly.
But Patil opposed it and publicly. He invited journalists and an employee of Doordarshan TV to his home. He told them that, while he was temporarily unwell, his capacity was intact and he would continue to serve as chief minister. Speaking to DD, Patil was “more or less declaring war on his own party”. “I was not asked to step down and I am not stepping down,” he said in his televised speech, adding that the issue of leadership “did not arise” when Gandhi met him.
With the Chief Minister adamant, the Congress convened a meeting of legislators to elect a new leader and with both sides claiming to have the required numbers, President R. Venkataraman, after duly consulting Governor Bhanu Pratap, declared the state on 10 October. President’s rule declared. Lion
VP Singh was then serving as the Prime Minister of the Janata Dal-led coalition government in Delhi. His party offered unconditional support to Patil to win the floor test.
The destruction of the airport had become such a public spectacle that the Prime Minister now personally joined the debate, personally targeting Rajiv Gandhi. He issued a statement saying, “Despite having an overwhelming majority in the House, the Congress government was destabilized by the party president, Shri Rajiv Gandhi.”
However, eventually, Patil lost the battle. S. Bangarappa was chosen as his replacement and President’s Rule was eventually revoked on 17 October.
The drama around Patil’s public humiliation gave the BJP an important opening: it created a new narrative of wounded Lingayat pride.
Around the same time, BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa, who started as an RSS Pracharak and entered politics with the Jana Sangh, just beginning to establish his credentials as a Lingayat leader. Yeddyurappa, the then president of the party’s state unit, declared that Rajiv Gandhi’s removal of Patil was “the most uncultured way of treating a chief minister”.
A year after the Patil incident, in the 1991 parliamentary elections, the BJP opened its account in Karnataka by winning four seats.
Many Lingayat voters saw Patil’s removal as a sign of the eclipse of Lingayat power in Karnataka. A BJP leader told me, “That incident with Patil changed things forever and helped the BJP in 1990.”
The Lingayat vote did not shift immediately, nor can it be considered a monolith. However, the Patil incident started a process whereby, during the 1990s, a large section of Lingayat voters, which had initially shifted to the Janata Party in the 1980s, gradually shifted to the BJP.
Over time, it became a solid caste-based bloc that served as the base for the BJP’s growth in north and central Karnataka. The Lingayat vote was particularly powerful for the party as it was concentrated in about 70 seats, with influence in another 30.
The victory of the Lingayat vote marked the beginning of the formation of the BJP in Karnataka. And this is the reason why Virendra Patil continues to remain stubborn to the party leaders.
Nalin Mehta, a writer and academic, is Dean of the School of Modern Media at UPES University in Dehradun, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and Group Consulting Editor, Network18. He is the author of The New BJP: Modi and the Making of the World’s Largest Political Party.
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