K. S. Eshwarappa

K. S. Eshwarappa (born 10 July 1948) is a senior politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of the two major political parties in India. He is an influential leader of the Kuruba Gowda community. Following BJP's loss at the 2013 Karnataka assembly elections, Eshwarappa stepped down as the state BJP president.^[1]

Early life

K. S. Eshwarappa was born in Bellary. His father Sharanappa moved to Shimoga in the early 1950s. His parents worked in the Bhoopalam Areca Mandi as daily wage workers. When young Eshwarappa also tried to go to work with his parents, his mother opposed the move and urged him to concentrate on his education and earn a good name in society. This inspiration that he got in his childhood, eventually led him to become a social worker.

As a child, Eshwarappa was interested in sports and music. One amongst his classmates was D. M. Ravindra who later became the Prant Pracharak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (R.S.S). Narasimha Murthy Iyengar, a well-known V.H.P leader in Shimoga introduced him to the R.S.S during his childhood. Thus, his public life began as an activist of the RSS.

While he was a student in the National Commerce College, Shimoga, he actively worked with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (A.B.V.P), the student wing of R.S.S. After his graduation, he started his own private business in Shimoga city. He also involved himself with the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

Political Career

During Emergency (1975–77), he was arrested and detained in the Bellary Jail. After the removal of emergency, he became very active in politics. He worked in different capacities and in 1982, he became the president of the Shimoga city unit of B.J.P. His personal efforts were one of the main reasons in M. Anandarao winning from Shimoga as the first ever B.J.P candidate.

In 1989, he contested the Karnataka assembly elections as a BJP candidate from Shimoga and defeated a heavyweight and the then health Minister Sri K. H. Srinivas with a margin of 1,304 votes. He became popular with this victory and went on to win four more times from this constituency, losing only once in 1999. Then he became the President of the state unit of the BJP in 1992 and was instrumental in the party's good performance in the 1994 state assembly elections. He was appointed as the Chairman of the Central Silk Board when the NDA government was in power.

In the BJP-JDS coalition Government headed by H. D. Kumaraswamy, he was Minister for Water Resources.^[2] Following the historic victory of the BJP in the Karnataka state elections in 2008, he became the minister for Power in the B.S. Yeddyurappa government.^[3]

In January 2010, he resigned as minister and was unanimously elected as the President of the Karnataka state unit of the ruling BJP.^[4] This move was seen as BJP’s strategy to tackle opposition leader in the assembly Siddaramaiah, who also belongs to the same community.^[5]

In July 2012, following the resignation of D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar was appointed the Chief minister and Eshwarappa became his deputy.^[6][7]

2013 Assembly elections

Having contested from the Shimoga constituency in the 2013 Assembly elections, Eshwarappa lost his seat to K. B. Prasanna Kumar by a margin of nearly 6,000 votes.^[8]

References