BENGALURU: BJP seems to have begun preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by organising backward classes, though party functionaries termed it a routine exercise. After a Scheduled Tribe Morcha workshop held in Northeastern states, a similar event was organised in Karnataka for office-bearers of the OBC Morcha, where they were taught how to create awareness among people on the work done by the Narendra Modi government in the interest of OBCs over the last eight years.
Party national president JP Nadda addressed the valedictory of the three-day ‘Prashikshan Shivir’, sending out a message that the BJP government is with OBCs. The timing of the workshop is important as the state is going to the polls in 2023, where OBC votes will play a crucial role.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said OBCs, who constitute 33 per cent of the population, are politically aware and they will be united further. “We are determined to build a strong nation with strong backward classes and also committed to their empowerment,” he asserted. BJP OBC Morcha national president Dr K Laxman, a Rajya Sabha member, alleged that Congress was never with OBCs as even the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was against the recommendations of the Mandal Commission for an OBC quota.
BJP national general secretary CT Ravi said the party will ensure that the OBC quota is maintained before the BBMP polls.
KSE kept at bay
Former RDPR minister KS Eshwarappa, who is a Kuruba and was the party’s backward classes face in the state, was absent from both the inaugural and valedictory functions of the workshop. He was also missing from the Nadda event in Chitradurga. When Eshwarappa had said that the ‘bhagwa dhwaj’ will be hoisted over the Red Fort in future, Nadda had ticked him off in a TV interview.“I was not invited as it was purely a ‘prashikshan shivir’ for the office-bearers. It is a system in the party and nothing more than that,” Eshwarappa told TNSE. But party functionaries said leaders like Eshwarappa should have been invited for the inauguration or valedictory if not for the entire event.