BJP sharpens SC outreach plans in Congress turf - Mysuru

MYSURU: Having seen success in drawing a chunk of the SC sub-castes, the BJP is further fine-tuning its social engineering strategies to woo the SC-Right community which, till recently, was solidly behind the Congress.

The party, which has set out to expand its social base and get an image makeover under Basavaraj Bommai as Chief Minister, views the formation of the new cabinet as a good opportunity to reach out to the SC-Right and other groups among the backward communities.

In the previous cabinet, the SC-Right community had found no representation, and this grouse had been taken up with prominent leaders of the RSS and also with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and others.

The Sangh and the BJP leaders are keen on bringing together the most backward castes and SCs, considered to be strongly behind the Congress for decades. With an intent to make a strong statement, the party has even scheduled the induction of expelled BSP MLA N Mahesh on Thursday. The move is being seen as an attempt to weaken the Congress base in the Old Mysuru region.

Sources said the party is looking to accommodate an MLA from the community in the cabinet as part of its social engineering gameplan while community leaders are also campaigning hard. Referring to the victories of veteran leader V Srinivasa Prasad from Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha constituency and Muniswamy from Kolar seat, they pointed out that the SC-Right is no longer solidly with the Congress. These leaders won from Congress bastions despite the BJP’s weak presence, stunning the Grand Old Party and raising eyebrows in political circles, they stressed.

The community has a sizeable number in the Old Mysuru region as well as the southern districts and is a deciding factor when it comes to voting. It has also strongly supported AHINDA leader Siddaramaiah. While the Congress has senior leaders in the likes of Mallikarjuna Kharge, G Parameshwara, H C Mahadevappa, R Dhruvanarayana, PM Narendraswamy and others, the BJP appointed Govind Karjol as Deputy Chief Minister while MP A Narayanaswamy was inducted into the Union Cabinet recently as part of its outreach.

The BJP has senior MLA MP Kumaraswamy from Mudigere, Nehru Olekar from Haveri and Harshavardhan from Nanjangud who belong to the SC-Right community. “We have appealed to the party bosses to give representation to our community and make one of us a minister so that it will further help in strengthening the party base,” Harshavardhan told TNIE. Leaders argue that representation in the cabinet will help reach out to the community with an appeal to support the party in the ensuing Zilla and Taluk panchayat elections.

BJP State SC Morcha president Narayaswamy said the community is no longer with the Congress as educated youths and even those in rural areas are looking to the BJP. This is evident from emphatic victories in Chamarajanagar and Kolar Lok Sabha election and the good performance in Assembly polls, winning in tough seats, he reasoned.

“The shifting of the community vote will benefit BJP candidates in the local body, Assembly and General Elections. The BJP is no longer a party of ‘baniyas’, it is now of the masses and the downtrodden. The focus of the Narendra Modi government’s programmes has been the welfare of the marginalised,” he said.

The SC-Right community has a strong presence in about 90 constituencies in the Old Mysuru region and will play a crucial role in the expansion of the party base in traditional Congress and JD(S) bastion, he added.