Vijayashankar appointed as governor of Meghalaya: BJP sends a strong message to rebels, dissenters

The BJP high command, by appointing former minister C H Vijayashankar, 67, as the governor of Meghalaya, has sent a message to state party leaders that it would prefer to reward the loyalists instead of dissenters.

When the BJP plunged into the elections in April 2024, it is believed that three Karnataka leaders, who were denied Lok Sabha election tickets, were in contention for the gubernatorial assignments.  

In finalising tickets for Karnataka, the party dropped D V Sadananda Gowda, former Union railway minister, from the Bangalore North Lok Sabha seat. Gowda openly expressed unhappiness over the party’s decision not to renominate him.

Former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa revolted against the party’s decision when it did not field his son Kanthesh from Haveri seat. 

The veteran also refused to budge when the high command asked him to withdraw his nomination from the Shimoga Lok Sabha seat. After his expulsion from the party, Eshwarappa contested as an independent candidate and lost the election. 

Senior leader Karadi Sanganna quit the BJP after he was denied a ticket from Koppal and joined the Congress.

In choosing Vijayashankar, the party has not just promoted another backward leader in Karnataka, but attempted to send a message to rebels and dissenters, sources said. 

“The BJP recognised my contribution and rewarded me. I never went against the party’s decision. I was always active in the party organisational works, whether I was in power or not,” Vijayashankar said after his name was announced in a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.

“My appointment proves that the party always recognises honest workers. I never lobbied for any posts either in the party or government,” he added.

Two-time MP

Vijayashankar helped the BJP make inroads into the Congress bastion of the Mysore-Kodagu constituency in the 1998 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections. A Kuruba leader, he quit the BJP in 2017, joined the Congress and contested as the Congress-JD (S) coalition candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Mysore-Kodagu. However, he lost to BJP’s Pratap Simha.

He rejoined the BJP in November 2019. The party gave him the ticket in 2023 from the Periyapatna (Mysuru) seat in the Legislative Assembly polls, but he lost.

“Despite Vijayashankar quitting the BJP once, he did not attack the party leadership,” a BJP leader said. 

The BJP earlier made several loyal workers Rajya Sabha members, including Eranna Kadadi, Narayana Koragappa and the late Ashok Gasti, the leader said. 

In other states too, BJP has promoted leaders who did not express dissent upon being denied tickets for the parliamentary elections.

One of the longest-serving party MPs and former union minister from UP, Santosh Gangwar, has been made the governor of Jharkhand in the recent reshuffle.

Gangwar, who won all but one election since 1989, was dropped by the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.