Buoyed by the number of votes polled by the party in Narasimharaja (NR) Assembly segment of the Mysuru Parliamentary constituency, the BJP is toying with the idea of bolstering its presence there to secure the victory of its candidate in the Assembly elections in future.
In an informal chat with party workers here on Friday, Pratap Simha, who was re-elected from the Mysuru Lok Sabha seat, said that the BJP had polled 56,262 votes from the NR segment which has a strong presence of the religious minorities and hence perceived to be a weak link in the party’s scheme of things in Mysuru. In contrast, Congress candidate C.H. Vijayashankar polled 98,241 votes which was the highest (for the Congress) among the 8 Assembly segments in Mysuru Lok Sabha seat.
But Mr. Simha told supporters that the party had not performed as badly as it had feared in the NR segment and hence he would strive to bolster the BJP’s presence and nurture the segment in a manner that would help the party win the MLA seat in future.
In the past
Incidentally, BJP’s Maruti Rao Pawar had been elected as an MLA from NR Assembly constituency in 1994. Even in the 2018 Assembly polls, BJP candidate S. Satheesh polled 43,629 votes and secured 27.27% of the vote share while winning candidate Tanveer Sait had polled 61,766 votes or 38.46% of the vote share from a constituency of nearly 2.62 lakh voters.
All these factors have emboldened the BJP that will strive to increase its support base in the NR Assembly segment.