Modi in Mandya to gird up BJP for Old Mysuru battle
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, March 9: Old Mysuru region had stopped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from crossing the half-way mark in the 2018 Assembly elections in Karnataka, as saffron outfit had managed to win just nine of the 59 constituencies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Mandya on Sunday is building up buzz in the poll bound state for course correction of the electoral fortune of the saffron outfit.
With the ruling BJP’s hold on the Lingayata vote base coming under stress after the ouster of BS Yediyurappa from the post of the chief minister, the Opposition Congress is making attempts to dent the core constituency of the party. “The BJP is concentrating in the Old Mysuru area where most of the MLAs belong to Congress and the JD (S). PM is visiting the region to inaugurate Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway in Mandya district only on Sunday,” said a senior BJP functionary from Bengaluru.
In the Mandya district, the JD (S) had won all but one seat in the 2018 elections, asserting the party’s dominance over the Vokkaliga vote base. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah has already visited the district and impressed upon the party workers to double up their efforts to dislodge the JD (S) from the district.
“Unless the BJP gets a good number of seats in the Old Mysuru areas, it may prove to be a daunting task for the saffron outfit to retain power in the state,” added the BJP functionary. The BJP is seeking to appeal to the voters in the Old Mysuru region by banking on the development plank, showcasing the 118-km expressway and the efforts of the state government to help the area attract investment and come up on the industrial map.
While Vokkaliga vote base has largely stayed loyal to the JD (S), DK Shivakumar, the Congress state unit chief, who hails from the community is also seeking to make inroads into the caste group. The BJP is also counting on a few Vokkaliga faces to slice away a portion of the vote base. The BJP had elevated the state party leader Shobha Karandlaje as Union Minister of state at the Centre with hopes to appeal to the Vokkaliga caste. Within the Lingayata support base also, the BJP is facing growing stress from the Panchamsali sub-sect of the community, which is politically asserting of late in Karnataka to stake claim on CM chair.
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