HUBBALLI: Four-time MP Pralhad Joshi is a perfect example of how a common party worker can reach the post of state unit president as well as Union minister, on the sheer basis of his performance. Though Joshi has no strong political influence among the masses, he speaks prudently, with facts and data, which attracts listeners. In the last three terms, he was considered the most active Member of Parliament from Karnataka. When Joshi fought his first election in 2004, he was considered a political novice with no experience of electoral politics under his belt. But as an active RSS member, he involved himself in several social activities. He came into the limelight for his active participation in the movement for hoisting of the National Flag at Idgah Maidan, Hubballi, in the early 1990s.

Joshi also faced arrest as he was a key member of the Rashtradhwara Gourava Samrakshna Samiti. An entrepreneur who was running a small-scale industry on the outskirts of Hubballi, he got a chance to fight the 2004 general election as incumbent BJP MP Vijay Sankeshwar had resigned from the party to launch his own political outfit, Kannada Nadu Party. It was late Union minister H N Ananth Kumar who played a big role in bringing Joshi to the national arena. His political life started as an office-bearer of the Dharwad district unit of the BJP. In his first outing, Joshi defeated retired senior IAS officer B S Patil of the Congress. By that time, Dharwad had turned into a bastion of the saffron party, as Sankeshwar had won three times in a row.

There on, Joshi consolidated the party’s position and has represented it till now. In the 2019 election, he defeated Vinay Kulkarni of the Congress by a whopping 2.05 lakh votes. But an accusation against him is that he is always riding one wave or another — from Vajpayee to Narendra Modi. In his first two terms, the UPA was in power, but that did not deter him from fighting for the development of the constituency. He had consistently raised issues pertaining to improving rail and road infrastructure, farmers, and industrial development, which were in public interest. In the previous term, he was instrumental in upgrading Hubballi airport and bringing it under the Udaan scheme to improve regional connectivity and get the Indian Institute of Technology, Dharwad, sanctioned.

Joshi was asked to lead the BJP state unit in 2014, when the party was in total disarray after the 2013 assembly poll drubbing. He succeeded in keeping the flock together and helped the party win 17 seats in the 2014 general election. His politics of performance pushed him into the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Oil and Natural Gas, and as part of the Speaker’s panel to run the Lok Sabha in the absence of a speaker and deputy speaker. And now, he is Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines in Modi 2.0. Joshi said that development tops his agenda: this includes increasing air connectivity to Hubballi and some pending proposals pertaining to road infrastructure in the twin-cities and highway improvement projects. He is hoping that the state government will cooperate.