Narendra Modi to address rally in Mysuru, Siddaramaiah’s home district, today

A file photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: PTI

Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will address his first election rally in Mysuru—about 125km from Bengaluru—a district that is considered a Congress bastion where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been unsuccessful in making inroads.

Mysuru is also the home district of Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, who has been using the state elections to take on Modi and the BJP, which has no assembly representation from the heritage city.

Apart from his public rally, Modi will flag off the Palace Queen Humsafar Express between Mysuru and Udaipur, inaugurate the electrification of railway line between Mysuru and Bengaluru and visit the Mahamastakabhisheka of Lord Gomateshwara in Shravanabelagola (Hassan district).

Modi’s rally in Mysuru comes barely a week after Congress president Rahul Gandhi toured six districts of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region to mobilise support for the party in the upcoming assembly elections in the state, scheduled to be held later this year.

All three major political parties of the state—Congress, BJP and Janata Dal (Secular)—have kickstarted their respective election campaigns in what is turning out to be one of the most keenly contested elections, which is likely to have an impact on national-level politics when the country heads to Lok Sabha polls next year.

BJP’s central leadership, which has taken control of the election campaign, is leaving little to chance to return to power in Karnataka where the party’s strength was reduced to 40 seats in 2013 from 110 in 2008. BJP’s five-year rule in Karnataka—the first time it had formed a government in south India—ended disastrously after a series of corruption allegations, including the multi-billion dollar illegal mining scandal came out against the top leadership of the party.

BJP and other political parties have scheduled events till election dates are announced, post which the campaign will kick into high gear. BJP national president Amit Shah will be in the communally sensitive Dakshina Kannada district on Tuesday. Gandhi will start the second of the four scheduled tours in Karnataka from 24 February. Modi will return on 27 February for a farmers rally in Davangere district.

Monday’s visit to Mysuru will also be Modi’s first to the southern part of the state which has been rejoicing the recent Supreme Court verdict on the over 150-year-old Cauvery river water sharing dispute, in which drought-hit Karnataka has managed to get a better deal when compared to its southern neighbour, Tamil Nadu.

The SC verdict on Friday gave Siddaramaiah, whose popularity has been soaring in recent months, an unexpected boost when compared to opposition parties, who have also unsuccessfully tried to capitalise on the issue by claiming victory or promising to resolve the crisis.

The state unit of the BJP, led by its chief ministerial candidate B.S.Yeddyurappa, is banking on the party’s performance at the centre to seek support in the state, turning Karnataka into the battlefield where national issues are being debated.

Modi had attacked Siddaramaiah over corruption allegations, failing law and order and inefficiency in governance during his visit to Bengaluru on 4 February,

Both Modi and Gandhi have used the campaigns in Karnataka to attack each other in matters of national policies like the implementation of goods and services tax (GST), demonetisation and national security. Even Siddaramaiah has made Modi his primary target, bypassing a fading Yeddyurappa, who is pulling all stops to gain his waning popularity again.

The BJP is trying hard to make inroads into south Karnataka, the heartland of farmer movement in the state, where the Congress and JD(S) are fighting each other, leaving no room for the saffron party. Of the 11 assembly seats in Mysuru, the Congress bagged eight and the JD(S) three in the 2013 elections. However, Mysuru, which has a large population of dominant Vokkaliga caste, scheduled castes and backward classes, gave its vote to the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.