TUMAKURU: The BJP looks to be utilising the ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’, aimed at introducing the four new Union Ministers of State from Karnataka, to project them as next-gen leaders who can strike a rapport with different segments of society in specific regions.
Evidently, the yatras of the Union ministers have witnessed traction wherever they have visited. Union Minister of State for Social Justice Anekal Narayanaswamy received a rousing welcome at places like Nelamangala in Bengaluru Rural district and Tumakuru on Tuesday.
With slogans of ‘Jai Madiga’, the SC-Left community members, cutting across party affiliations, took part in the yatra, indicating that they accept him as their community leader. One of the factors which may have worked for him is that he has been unwavering in the demand for internal reservation from within the 15 per cent SC quota. If the government decides to implement the Justice Sadashiva Commission recommendations, the SC-Left community will exclusively get 6 per cent internal reservation.
“There is no question of backtracking on internal reservation. I have fought for the cause for several years. But it will be achieved by winning the hearts of all SC communities”, he declared at the Siddaganga Mutt here, and it was received with huge applause.
“I was surprised when I was named MoS for social justice. But my three decades of commitment to the party’s ideology have paid off,” he remarked.
Narayanaswamy migrated to Chitradurga Lok Sabha seat after he lost the Anekal Assembly seat. He is quite popular with the SC-Left community (Madiga) in parts of Old Mysuru, especially Tumakuru and Chitradurga. Interestingly, the community has also started identifying with L Murugan, MoS for Animal Husbandry, who hails from Tamil Nadu, as they consider him as their man.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Shohba Karandlaje, who was seen as a replacement for former Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda, got to engage with the Vokkaliga community in strongholds such as Mandya and Hassan where she too reportedly got good response.
Lingayat leader and Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, Bhagwanth Khuba, took part in the yatra in Bidar, a region dominated by the community. Interestingly, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrashekar, an entrepreneur himself, went to Hubballi, a business centre, and Uttara Kannada, where former Union minister Anantkumar Hegde has been inactive due to personal reasons.
How this will pay dividends for the BJP in the coming days, specially in the light of the series of elections, remains to be seen.