Bengaluru: One one who shouldn’t be within the electoral fray in Karnataka however whose identify has generated a number of dialogue is Bommarabettu Laxmijanardhana Santhosh or B.L. Santosh, the BJP’s nationwide normal secretary.

This was extra so since former BJP chief minister Jagadish Shettar addressed a press assembly on Tuesday, April 18. Shettar, who give up the BJP in a huff and joined the rival Congress, lashed out at the 56-year-old Santosh for being “directly responsible” for his denial of a ticket for the May 10 Karnataka elections from the BJP, a celebration he served for over three a long time. Unlike his common soft-spoken, affable persona, Shettar was combative and aggressive on Tuesday and launched a no-holds-barred assault on Santosh. Shettar accused Santosh of “destroying the organisation built by the sweat of lakhs of karyakartas” to fulfil his private ambitions.

“Who is Santosh?” This was a query many are asking, since he shouldn’t be identified a lot outdoors the RSS-BJP circles. Santosh is an RSS pracharak-turned-BJP key determine. Hailing from Hiriyadka city in Karnataka’s coastal Udupi district, Santosh – a Shivalli Brahmin – was born to lower-middle-class dad and mom who didn’t personal a home and lived in a temple.

Santosh joined the RSS at a younger age and did his engineering in instrumentation know-how from BDT College of Engineering in Davanagere, Karnataka. He later turned concerned full-time within the RSS and labored as a pracharak from 1993 in a number of districts like Udupi, Shivamogga, Mysuru and Bengaluru.

Santosh, all the time clad in a dhoti and white shirt, maintains a secure distance from the media. He was introduced in as Karnataka BJP normal secretary (organisation) in 2006 (succeeding Vaman Acharya) and remained within the publish until 2014. This was a publish that was created, each on the state and central degree, for higher coordination between the BJP and its ideological mum or dad, RSS. This stint enabled Santosh to intently observe the BJP as a celebration organisation and as a ruling outfit.

His appointment coincided with a tumultuous interval for the celebration. Though it assumed energy in Karnataka in November 2007, the BJP landed in varied issues – most importantly the corruption costs that noticed its Lingayat strongman and chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa (BSY) being despatched to jail. The celebration needed to appoint three CMs in as a few years – D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Shettar being the opposite two, who had stints lower than a yr.

Strained relationship with Yediyurappa

All alongside, there was no love misplaced between him and BSY. Santosh was mentioned to have strongly opposed BSY due to the corruption costs levelled in opposition to him, for nepotism and his closeness with the Bellary mining barons and their function within the authorities and the celebration. Santosh was additionally against the late Anant Kumar, a fellow Brahmin and Union minister. Santosh was accused of encouraging these against BSY inside the celebration and never permitting his personal detractors to enter the celebration workplace.

Come 2014, Narendra Modi turned the prime minister. Santosh was appointed nationwide joint normal secretary in command of the southern states that very yr. He was elevated to the publish of normal secretary (organisation) of the BJP in 2019. From 2019 onwards, he has carried out essential duties like altering chief ministers in lots of states akin to Gujarat, Tripura and Uttarakhand with no hitch. Incidentally, in all these states, the BJP returned to energy regardless of the change in CMs.

With regard to Karnataka, Santosh was all the time mentioned to be eager on creating new management and recognizing new, younger faces dedicated to the Sangh and the BJP. The experiment in 2019 of getting three deputy CMs – Laxman Savadi (Lingayat, defeated as MLA), Ashwath Narayan (Vokkaliga) and Govind Karjol (Dalit) – was mentioned to have been deliberate by Santosh to clip BSY’s wings and on the identical time, to try to evolve a set of latest management. It, after all, did not work.

He was additionally mentioned to have noticed Tejasvi Surya, the Bengaluru South MP; introduced in C.T. Ravi as nationwide normal secretary in cost of some states; and appointed Karnataka-cadre IPS officer Annamalai as Tamil Nadu BJP chief. He additionally performed a key function in selecting a number of new faces who weren’t identified even inside the BJP as Rajya Sabha members, and located many unheralded achievers to obtain Padma awards.

Unlike Yediyurappa, Santosh is named a Hindutva hardliner and is credited with empowering leaders like Ravi, Nalin Kumar Kateel and Tejasvi Surya, who share related views.

What do insiders say?

Santosh is claimed to be strongly in opposition to people rising in stature such that coping with them comes at the price of celebration ideology and is in favour of the emergence of latest management at state and district ranges. He is in opposition to dynasty (household) politics however believes that it will possibly’t be stopped immediately. In Karnataka, he wished to interrupt the nexus between the politicians and mutts – he as soon as remarked that some mutts take cash from politicians to carry festivals as per the comfort of these politicians.

Santosh’s identify acquired entangled within the alleged poaching of Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLAs in Telangana and luring them to BJP. Santhosh and three others had been named as accused by the Special Investigation Team within the case.

The normal secretary is claimed to have been given the duty of cleansing up and reclaiming the celebration organisation in numerous states together with Karnataka, “even if this means taking some years and the party getting defeated in some states”. Many see his hand within the number of celebration candidates for the Karnataka meeting. It is seemingly his thought to make two senior leaders contest from two seats. R. Ashoka will contest from Padmanabhanagar, and Kanakapura the place he’ll face KPCC president D.Okay. Shivakumar, whereas V. Somanna will contest from Chamarrajanagar and Vaaruna, the place he’ll oppose Congress chief and former CM Siddaramaiah.

Shettar has alleged that Santosh has taken full management of the Karnataka BJP unit and was taking all selections to the detriment of the celebration. The former CM accused Santosh of appointing his personal individuals to strategic posts each within the state and on the centre, and is driving individuals like him, who’ve labored for many years for the celebration, out of the organisation. He additionally mentioned Santosh was instrumental in denying tickets not solely to him however to many others – solely as a result of he wished to decide on his personal individuals as candidates.

A bit of partymen accuse Santosh of getting chief ministerial ambitions and because of this, making certain that Shettar and Okay.S. Eshwarappa exit the celebration and electoral scene respectively. While some individuals accuse Santosh of preferring Brahmin candidates, his supporters say if that was the case, “would he have been instrumental in bringing in three deputy CMs of different castes?”

B.S. Arun is a senior journalist based mostly in Bengaluru.