Why BJP Chose Its Rival’s Stronghold To Launch Karnataka Poll Campaign

JP Nadda with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and other leaders at ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’

Bengaluru:

With strong anti-incumbency fuelled by a raft of corruption allegations in Karnataka, the BJP is now focusing on the region which has been the stronghold of its rival Janata Dal (Secular) or JDS – Chamrajanagar district in the Old Mysuru Region – for the election due later this year.

BJP Chief JP Nadda today flagged off the party’s first election campaign, “Vijay Sankalp Yatra” – first among the four planned yatras from the four corners of the state – from Hanur assembly seat.

The Old Mysore Region, with 61 assembly seats, is a stronghold of the JDS. The Congress has also been a major force in the area.

In 2018, the BJP did exceptionally well in coastal Karnataka and the Mumbai-Karnataka regions. However, it fell short of a clear majority in parts of the old Mysuru region and the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.

“It’s been almost impossible for the BJP to claim victory in the Old Mysuru region. To strengthen the base, they have begun the yatra from here. The focus is, of course, to strengthen the Nanjangud and Gundlupet assembly seats. And more importantly, the Chamarajanagar assembly seat where we lacked support. Further, we will slowly move into Mysuru, Mandya and Nanjungudu,” said BJP spokesperson S Prakash.

Chamarajanagar is one among the nine districts of the Old Mysore Region that includes Mysuru, Mandya, Ramanagara, Bengaluru Rural, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru, and Hassan districts. It has four assembly segments – Hanur, Chamarajanagar, Kollegal and Gundlupet.

Why Chamarajanar was the choice of the BJP to flag off the yatra?

In Hanur, the BJP has found it challenging to defeat the Congress’s three-time MLA R Narendra from the Vokkaliga community while in Chamarajanagar assembly seat, Congress’ C Puttarangashetty from the OBC community won in the 2018 assembly election.

In 2018, Mr Puttarangashetty scored a hattrick by defeating BJP’s KR Mallikarjunappa with a margin of 4,913 votes. He was the winner from the seat in the 2013 and 2008 elections too.

“Mr Puttarangashetty has been facing a strong anti-incumbency wave. A poor performance in the assembly could spell trouble for the Congress, at a time when the BJP is trying hard to shift the Congress votes with pro-development promises. Observing the performance of the BJP MLAs and gauging the pulse of the people, the BJP has decided to launch their election campaign from Chamarajanagar district today,” a poll strategist with the Congress told NDTV.

Highly placed sources in the BJP told NDTV: “In three of the four assembly seats in Chamarajanagar district, the BJP is looking to field candidates from the Lingayat community while the fourth seat – Kollegal – has been reserved for the candidate from Scheduled Caste community”.

The BJP is now focusing on consolidating the Lingayat and tribal votes that are more concentrated in the Chamarajanagar district.

“The votes from the tribal community were split between the Congress and the BJP. There is a right-wing tilt among the younger generation of the Vokkaliga community. The outreach by local BJP leaders look great and they are ahead of all political parties,” added a political analyst with the Congress.

The Congress is now banking on Siddaramaiah and its Karnataka Pradesh Committee’s working president R Dhruvanarayan, who lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election by a whisker to BJP’s V Srinivas Prasad.

The Congress had in January launched a march – Prajadhwani Yatra – which traversed across the Mysuru-Chamarajanagar-Mandya belt, highlighting the BJP is occupied with the construction of temples instead of working on pro-development schemes.

The BJP recently announced that it would construct a Ram temple in Ramanagara district in the region.

Inspired by Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Karnataka, the Prajadhwani Yatra is headed by two teams – one by Siddaramaiah who is currently touring assembly constituencies in north Karnataka and another team by DK Shivakumar who has been focusing on the southern districts.

“With BJP sidelining BS Yediyurappa, the only USP for the party right now is to capitalise on their central leaders’ visit and by taking advantage of V Sommanna – the sitting MLA and Minister for Housing who has a huge Lingayat following. In Chamarajanagar, if you have money, poll fortunes can change and it’s visible with the BJP,” said a Congress political observer.

Mysuru BJP MP Pratap Simha said the BJP is in a tight spot because they have no big face in the old Mysuru region which has put them on the back foot

“BJP was never there in the Old Mysuru Region. We were never able to make inroads in there. Since 2019 – through development, we are winning. During the previous election, BJP won only 16 of the 61 seats. Most of the seats in the old Mysuru region have gone to the Congress and JD(S) and the BJP is trying hard to squeeze in. If we get at least 25-30 seats in the Old Mysuru Region, we will have an absolute majority,” said Mr Simha

“The BJP never had a state-level leadership and a big name in the Old Mysuru Region. The Congress and the JDS always had leaders like SM Krishna, Devraj Urs, Deve Gowda but the BJP never had a tall leader from the region. Most of the leaders in the Congress and JDS have been from the Vokkaliga community. Without Vokkaligas voters, a win is difficult in the old Mysuru region. However, in the last few years, a few leaders from the community have joined the BJP. In the present state government, prominent leaders from the Vokkaliga community are ministers. We are also attracting voters with pro-development schemes like the upcoming inauguration of the Mysuru expressway, drinking water under the Jal Jeevan mission. People are slowly tilting toward BJP because of the development schemes we are offering,” he added.

The party is banking on central leaders and the star power of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the assembly election. Tomorrow, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will flag off the second Yatra from Nandagarh in Belagavi. Home Minister Amit Shah will launch the third and fourth yatras on Friday from Basavkalyan in Beedar district and Avathi in Devanhalli.

The yatras will converge on March 25 in Davanagere with a rally to be addressed by PM Modi.