B.Y. Vijayendra — Yediyurappa’s trusted son and nemesis
The Hindu
The apparent attempts of the Karnataka Chief Minister to mould his second and more politically ambitious son as his successor appears stuck for now.
Forty-five-year-old law graduate B.Y. Vijayendra, on whom his ageing father and Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa leaned heavily in his fourth stint in the hot seat, also turned out to be his nemesis. The apparent attempts of the regional satrap – among the few from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stables – to mould his second and more politically ambitious son as his successor appears stuck for now. Those who have seen him up close say that while Mr. Vijayendra’s ambition is his strength, the haste and the means he chose to achieve it were not palatable to most. Even as , Mr. Vijayendra is learnt to be lobbying with the party high command to anoint him Deputy Chief Minister under a non-Lingayat Chief Minister after his father’s exit. Though Mr. Vijayendra started his career as secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha’s Bengaluru unit in 2009 during Mr. Yediyurappa’s first tenure as Chief Minister, his elder brother B.Y. Raghavendra, two-time MP from Shivamogga, was tipped to be the patriarch’s political successor. But an aggressive Mr. Vijayendra, who reportedly played a key role in extricating his father from the legal quagmire he found himself in post 2011, has now occupied that slot. He has “sharp political instincts” and has a “Yediyurappa-like daring” to take on challenges, his close associates say.More Related News