The BJP has yet again sounded its seriousness in making inroads into the Vokkaliga heartland of Mandya with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath making his maiden appearance in Karnataka to campaign for the 2023 Assembly elections with a road show and a public rally in Mandya on April 26.
Mandya is reckoned to be the bastion of the Janata Dal (Secular), which won all the 7 Assembly seats in the 2018 polls, though the Congress has a formidable presence as well with the BJP a distant third. For the BJP to secure a comfortable majority in Karnataka, the party has to improve its tally in the Mysuru-Mandya-Chamarajanagar belt where it won only 4 out of 22 seats in 2018, besides wresting the K.R. Pet from JD(S) in a by-election in 2019.
That the BJP is serious about improving its tally in the region was evident when Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a diary at Gejjalagere in Mandya followed by addressing a public rally where he tore into the Congress and the JD(S) while seeking support for the ‘double engine’ government at the Centre and in the State.
This was followed by inauguration of the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also in Mandya, on March 12. In continuation of its focus on the Vokkaliga belt, the UP CM enters the electoral scene in Karnataka via Mandya.
Yogi Adityanath’s entry to the Vokkaliga heartland also has a religious connotation, which the BJP is trying to exploit. The UP CM is an adherent to the Naath Sampradaya, or tradition. Adichunchanagiri mutt — with its headquarters at Adichunchanagiri in Nagamangala taluk of Mandya district and which enjoys a wide following among the Vokkaligas — has allegiance to the same sect.
This link of Adi Chunchanagari mutt with Naath Sampradaya is being exploited by the BJP assiduously since the 2018 elections. Though it bore little result, there is no dilution of BJP’s long-term investment in highlighting the religious connection.
After the rally in Mandya, the UP CM will fly to Basavanna Bagewadi in Vijayapura to address a public meeting at Indi.
His rally is part of a ’publicity blitzkrieg’ being launched by the BJP simultaneously across Karnataka with a slew of national and State leaders hitting the campaign trail across all 224 Assembly segments. Dubbed as ’Maha Prachar Abhiyan’, it is a push to — what BJP national general secretary C.T. Ravi described as — help the party win at least 150 seats in the Karnataka Assembly elections, scheduled on May 10.
