BENGALURU: Union Home Minister Amit Shah continues to focus on Bengaluru city ahead of the Assembly elections with an aim to win all the 28 constituencies in the state capital which is crucial for BJP to retain power in Karnataka.
Shah, who addressed people from all walks of life at the Town Hall in the city during his last visit, will launch the Safe City project with allocations from Nirbhaya funds on March 3. Bengaluru is one of the eight cities across the country selected under the scheme by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
With polls to the Bengaluru civic body yet to be held, which if held would have helped BJP gauge the voters’ mind, the party will have to go the extra mile to woo the public who are reeling under several civic woes, including pothole-ridden roads. “Hence, visits by national leaders like Shah and PM Narendra Modi are needed for the party,” said a political expert.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the then Ruling Congress won 15 of the 28 seats in Bengaluru. While BJP bagged 11, two seats were won by JDS. However, in 2019, three Congress MLAs (ST Somashekar, Byrati
Basavaraj and Munirathna) and a JDS MLA (K Gopalaiah) switched over to BJP and won the bypolls later, taking the party’s tally to 15.
Shah is also leaving nothing to chance and will cash in on the legacy of the city’s founder Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda by launching the fourth ‘ratha’, part of the party’s Vijaya Sankalpa Yatra, from Chennakeshava temple in Devanahalli that was built by the ruler. He will also address a public rally.
KPCC working president and former minister Ramalinga Reddy, however, predicted that Shah’s repeated visits to the city will not have a positive impact on BJP’s poll prospects. “In every election, Bengaluru proved cosmopolitan with 20% of the voters exercising their franchise without considering caste, creed, language, and even religion. This will be the case this time too. Congress will win more seats,” he predicted.