BENGALURU: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow in Bengaluru, covering half of the city, BJP is hoping to get more seats in Bengaluru and achieve its mission of winning 20 out of 28 seats in the capital.
Though the saffron party has all the three Lok Sabha seats in the city in its kitty, the equation is different for the Assembly polls. In 2008, it won the highest number of 17 seats. In 2013, however, it dipped to 12. In the last election, only 11 were BJP MLAs from the city. But the tally went up to 15 with the bypolls in 2019, after many MLAs from Congress and JDS quit and joined BJP.
Modi, who has toured the state extensively, is focusing on the city to make big gains. His roadshow on Saturday drew big crowds, while another is scheduled for Sunday morning. With this, he would have covered all the constituencies in the city.
In Bengaluru, certain constituencies are BJP boroughs, while others are Congress strongholds. Across the city, there is a large number of neutral voters who are undecided, and that is the segment that BJP hopes to swing its way with Modi’s rallies. The party also expects the Prime Minister’s outings to iron out creases like traffic jams, bad roads, potholes and other issues that were its pain points just a few weeks ago.
Bengaluru South MP and BJP Yuva Morcha national president Tejasvi Surya told The New Sunday Express that the party is confident of winning 20 seats in the city. Surya, who accompanied Modi on the roadshow, said the crowd was ‘’Naa Bhutho, Na Bhavishyathe’’ and the love they saw was precious. “No PM has done so much for Bengaluru, be it the suburban rail, extension of Metro rail or new terminus at the Kempegowda International Airport. His vision and schemes have benefited at least 80 lakh people in Bengaluru, directly and indirectly,” he claimed.
Political scientist Prof Sandeep Shastri said going by the voting pattern, Bengaluru has always recorded the lowest voter turnout in the state in the last 40 years. “In Bengaluru, urban voter numbers matter. One has to wait and watch,” he said.