BENGALURU: With its victory in KR Pet, the Bharatiya Janata Party may have left its footprints in regions it had never conquered before, but the journey to deepen its roots, is a long one. With its eyes set on Old Mysuru region, the BJP’s focus for the next three years, is to strengthen its newly-acquired voter base in districts like Hassan, Mandya, Mysuru, Kolar, and Chikkaballapur. The first step towards strengthening grassroots could begin with inducting MLAs from the region into the cabinet.
While former Congress and JDS leaders Dr Sudhakar and Narayana Gowda — who have now been newly-elected as BJP MLAs from Chikkaballapur and KR Pet respectively — were assured of a cabinet berth, the BJP will have to pick another from within the party.
After his milestone victory from Hassan assembly seat in 2018, Preetham Gowda, teaming up with General Secretary of BJP Yuva Morcha BY Vijayendra, proved his mettle as an election winner once again in KR Pet, ensuring Narayana Gowda’s victory. The Chief Minister himself, in an interview with The New Indian Express, had given full credits to his son Vijayendra and Hassan MLA Preetham for the historic win in KR Pet. All the hard work may now pay off with the party also looking to promote caste (Vokkaliga) leaders in the region that has shown allegiance to caste politics — be it with the leaders of JDS or the Congress.
With Lingayat-strong North Karnataka already under its belt as BS Yediyurappa is their chief, the BJP is keen on conquering the turfs of JDS and Congress. The party won all seats except Bengaluru Rural and Hassan — both in Old Mysuru region and both Vokkaliga bastions — of the 27 seats it contested.
In Mandya, the party backed Sumalatha Ambareesh who earned a landslide victory. The results of the recently-concluded bypolls have boosted the party’s confidence. Preetham’s victory in Hassan in 2018, Deve Gowda’s defeat in Tumkur in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and Narayana Gowda’s victory in KR Pet in the recently-concluded bypolls despite his rebellion toppling the HD Kumaraswamy government, has given the BJP a chance to turn the tide around in the Old Mysuru region that has remained elusive for the saffron party. With the right representation in the cabinet, the party hopes to win at least 20 assembly constituencies in the Old Mysuru region in the next elections.