Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah may appear completely preoccupied with the upcoming Assembly polls in Gujarat, but planning for the next few days of political activity shows that the southern state of Karnataka, scheduled to go to the polls early next year, is weighing heavily on their minds.
The north Karnataka district of Bidar will see Prime Minister Modi make his first political speech in the State on Sunday, where he will be addressing a political rally after attending a couple of government events in Bengaluru and Dharmasthala. According to a senior BJP general secretary, the rally will presage the Nava Karnataka Parivarthana Yatre to be flagged off by BJP chief Amit Shah on November 2 from Bengaluru and carried forward by the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the State, B. S. Yeddyurappa. The yatra or road show is expected to touch all 224 Assembly constituencies in the State and has two parts to it — the flagging off from Bengaluru and a mid-way jamboree at Hubli on December 21. The yatra will conclude in Bengaluru again on January 28, in a rally to be addressed by Prime Minister Modi.
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“We are looking at Karnataka as seven distinct regions politically, including Bombay and Hyderabad Karnataka, Malnad, Bengaluru and surrounding regions, coastal Karnataka and old Mysuru, and we hope that, by January 28, Prime Minister Modi can address meetings in each of these regions,” said the office-bearer, adding that the details were yet to be worked out. Bombay Karnataka refers to the Kannada speaking districts bordering Maharashtra, which were earlier part of the Bombay Presidency. Hyderabad Karnataka comprises districts in northern Karnataka bordering Andhra Pradesh, which were part of the erstwhile Nizamate of Hyderabad.
Farmer suicides
“Our main issues against the current Karnataka government would be corruption, farmers’ distress that has seen nearly 4,000 suicides by farmers in the last four years in the State, and the increasing cases of radicalisation and the poor handling of it by the State government,” said the office bearer.
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The BJP is seen as depending on the support base of Lingayats, the largest community grouping in the State, hence the choice of Bidar, where the community is in large numbers and hews to the BJP’s strong hold on north Karnataka. The Vokkaliga community, the second largest grouping, has traditionally not taken to the BJP, and the recent income tax raids on Karnataka Minister D. K. Shivkumar, who belongs to the Vokkaliga community, have not gone down well. BJP chief Amit Shah made it a point to visit the Adichunchanagiri Mutt of Vokkaligas in old Mysore in August. “What is more important is that there was an overture from the Mutt for the BJP, which wasn’t forthcoming earlier,” said the general secretary.
The party is trying to energise cadre through the yatra and plans a big motorcycle rally in Bengaluru for the event on November 2.