When B S Yediyurappa had turned 75 on February 27, 2018, he refused to celebrate his birthday. Posters wishing him ‘a happy 75’ were pulled down but some admirers of the Karnataka chief minister second-guessed the reason for his sullenness and made him a year younger, 74, on billboards.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had unofficially imposed an age cap of 75 on holding public offices. By the unstated norm, which led to the creation of a margdarshak mandal for those who crossed 75, Yediyurappa could have been pensioned off that year. But he lived to see another day. Last