Plans in place for K’taka clash
CONG DESIGN It has divided state into four zones for campaigning and is likely to list Siddaramaiah govt’s achievements in its manifesto BJP’S STRATEGY The saffron party’s campaign will be positioned on three planks — fighting corruption, farmers welfare and Hindutva
NEW DELHI: The Congress is set to unleash all its firepower in Karnataka in a bid to retain power in the state, party insiders said.
The ruling party has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to prevent the BJP from realising its ‘Congress-mukt Bharat (Congress-free India)’ mission. Karnataka is the only big state ruled by the Congress, which is why the party is investing much prestige in the state, with its chief Rahul Gandhi set to begin the second leg of his campaign in the BombayKarnataka zone from Saturday, party leaders said.
The Congress has divided the state into four zones of Hyderabad-karnataka, Bombay-karnataka, Mysore and Bangalore regions for “effective and efficient” canvassing. Each state minister along with central and state office-bearers have been assigned different constituencies for better poll management.
The party has also instructed its communication, social media, research and data departments to focus on the elections and tap local resources. Research department head Rajeev Gowda and social media head Divya Spandana happen to be from Karnataka and are spending considerable time in the state.
Picking up from where he had left in Gujarat, Gandhi has continued with his temple visits in Karnataka undeterred by the charge that he is playing a ‘softHindutva’ card to appease the majority community i n an attempt to counter the BJP.
However, the Congress chief did visit the shrine of Khwaja Bande Nawaz, a 13th century Sufi saint, during his previous tour. But will it help the Congress? Political analysts maintain that there is a possibility that the strategy that the Congress devised in Gujarat might come in handy to an extent in Karnataka given that corruption and development issues were non-starters.
“Only Hindutva has a panKarnataka appeal and other subjects are region-specific and this is one issue which the BJP will try to exploit . It is imperative for the Congress to respond to that in some way,” said A Narayana, associate professor for public policy at the Bengaluru-based Azim Premji University.
The Congress is fighting the polls under the leadership of chief minister Siddaramaiah. By clearing the air about the CM face, Gandhi has not only silenced Siddaramaiah’s detractors but also put on him the onus of retaining power in Karnataka.
At every public rally, the Congress president has praised Sid- daramaiah for his governance and commitment to work for all sections of the society. He even urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to learn how to govern from Siddaramaiah.
Siddaramaiah is from the backward Kuruba community, the third largest caste in Karnataka after Lingayats and Vokaligas, the two upper castes that have dominated the state politics for decades now.
The Congress is likely to release its manifesto next month, senior leader M Veerappa Moily said. “It will be a holistic document. The idea is to make it a people’s manifesto in letter and spirit,” he said.
The document is expected to highlight the Siddaramaiah government’s achievements and also specify the party’s vision for next five years. Congress leaders are holding deliberations with different segments of the society across the state to take their inputs in preparing the manifesto. NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign in Karnataka will be positioned on three major planks – fighting corruption, farmer welfare and Hindutva, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa and party chief Amit Shah respectively — senior party functionaries said on Friday.
The largest among the five states currently ruled by the Congress, the Karnataka assembly elections will be held in AprilMay this year. The BJP aims not only to make another state “Congress-mukt” (free of the Congress), but also to reclaim its gateway to the south.
For this, it is banking on Modi’s “clean” image and highlighting the “corruption-free” governance under him at the Centre, contrasting it with chief minister Siddaramaiah’s regime in the state. “Corruption under the Siddaramaiah government is a major issue,” BJP general secretary Muralidhar Rao said, echoing the sentiment expressed by several BJP campaigners at rallies across the state.
Modi addressed two rallies in Karnataka this month and will speak at two other public meetings between March 3 and 14. “The more he campaigns, the more it benefits the party,” said another BJP general secretary.
Shah has asked workers to ignore individual candidates in several constituencies and seek votes in Modi’s name. “I appeal to workers, don’t look at the candidate. Just look at the lotus symbol (the party’s symbol) and Modi’s photo,” Shah said in Bantwal in n Dakshina Kannada district on Tuesday.
But the BJP also expects its state president and former chief minister Yeddyurappa to win over the agrarian community. The party has claimed more than 3,000 distressed farmers committed suicide in Karnataka under Congress government. As chief minister, Yeddyurappa had announced cheaper farm credit and asserts it was because of his campaign that Siddaramaiah announced a farm loan waiver.
Between November 2 and January end, Yeddyurappa carried out a road show, travelling over 11,000km to cover each of the 224 assembly constituencies, where he promised several farmers welfare measures. “I have promised to bring an investment of ₹1 lakh crore to complete pending irrigation projects in Karnataka,” he said. “A special fund of ₹10,000 crore will be created to help farmers in distress.”
There will also be a bold Hin- dutva imprint on the BJP campaign.
On a trip to Mangalore this week, Shah visited Kukke Shri Subrahmanya temple in South Kannada district, called on Sri Sri Vishwesha Teertha Swamiji of Pejavara Matha, and made a trip to Udupi Sri Krishna Matha. Shah’s itinerary included visits to the family members of Deepak Rao and Paresh Mesta – two BJP workers allegedly killed by radical outfits. Rao alleged that more than 20 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP workers have been killed by radical outfits in the last a few years under Siddaramaiah.
“Karnataka is suffering from 3 M’s — Murder, Mafia & Ministerial corruption. People of the state want to move away from Goonda Governance to Good Governance. It is only a matter of days that Congress govt will be out and BJP will be voted in,” Shah tweeted from Karnataka on Tuesday.