New Beginnings

On 26 July, BS Yediyurappa—often referred to as BSY—stepped down as Karnataka’s chief minister, but continued to occupy “Cauvery,” the chief minister’s official residence. There are no signs of him giving it up. Basavaraj Bommai, the new chief minister, has already got himself allocated another bungalow in the vicinity, which was earlier in the possession of a deputy chief minister. This makes Bommai look like BSY’s deputy, which is perhaps the message that BSY intends to send out.

Before Bommai made alternate housing arrangements for himself, on 7 August, he passed an order bestowing the status and perks of a cabinet minister to BSY. This exceptional order was seemingly passed to allow BSY to retain the bungalow. However, when the order made headlines, BSY was forced to decline the new status. Nonetheless, the bungalow was allotted to another senior cabinet minister, so that BSY could continue to stay there as his privileged guest—essentially a non-paying tenant.

There is good reason for the perks BSY continues to enjoy. For the last couple of decades, he has been instrumental to the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka. But, given the lack of a neat overlap between the Hindutva ideology and BSY’s politics, his relationship with the national leadership of the BJP was always uneasy. While BSY’s departure