New Delhi: Challenging the ruling Congress party in its stronghold, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to organize around 15 public meetings to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the campaign for the Karnataka elections in May.
Senior BJP leaders believe that Modi’s popularity worked in favour of the party in the 2014 assembly polls when BJP won 17 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state and hope for a similar response in the 12 May Karnataka elections.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the biggest mascot of the party, people want to listen to him and we only have to organize public meetings. The dates and venues of the public meetings are being finalized. The total number of public meetings could be around 15 but it can be increased up to 20 depending on the requirement of the party,” said a senior BJP leader who is involved in the campaign strategy.
Modi has already visited Karnataka twice in the last 15 days and held public meetings in Davangere and Mysuru where he spoke about welfare of farmers and attacked the Congress government under chief minister Siddaramaiah for lack of development initiatives.
The Karnataka elections are important for BJP because it is the only state in southern India where the party has tasted power—under the leadership of former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa—and plays a decisive role.
Members of the BJP said that the party is hoping to involve at least 60 members of Parliament (MPs) from different states who would be deputed to different areas of Karnataka and handle 3-4 assembly constituencies each till the polls are over.
“We are planning to ask 60 MPs to manage constituencies for the party so that there is close monitoring of the situation and we could take corrective steps during campaigning to improve our performance in the elections. These MPs would be assisted by the 17 Lok Sabha MPs from Karnataka who would also be involved in campaigning,” the BJP leader said.
The importance of Karnataka for BJP is clear from the fact that out of the total 129 Lok Sabha seats across five states in southern India, BJP won 21 seats in 2014 polls, of which Karnataka accounted for 17.
After the clash between the BJP and Congress in the Gujarat elections, Karnataka is the second state where the two rivals will be in direct contest.
While the Congress is aiming to repeat its 2013 performance and retain power, the BJP wants to yet again trump the incumbent in a direct contest.
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“Congress party would be under pressure because the state government is facing anti-incumbency. Congress lost power in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in the last four years, now BJP is challenging the party in Karnataka. We are confident of a good performance in the coming elections,” the BJP leader added.
Apart from Punjab, Karnataka is the only big state where the Congress is in power and the party would want the southern state to stop the BJP surge.
“Karnataka elections will start the direct contest between BJP and Congress in the coming days. BJP would try to return to power and form government in Karnataka so that it has both electoral and psychological edge over Congress. Karnataka election results would have an impact on Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh elections that would take place later this year,” said Abhay Kumar Dubey, a New Delhi-based political analyst associated with the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).