BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah seem to be executing their own strategy to woo backward classes and Dalits across the country, including Karnataka.
Continuing to take the name of Dr BR Ambedkar at his rallies, Modi at Chikkaballapur on Saturday claimed, “The SC/ST and OBC communities have gained tremendously from our (Centre’s) development initiatives.”
Taking the party’s pitch further, Shah is holding an OBC rally at Kibbanahalli Cross in the Tumakuru Lok Sabha constituency on Wednesday. He will share the dais with former prime minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda.
They are expected to touch upon the issue of ST tag to Kadugollas. The community’s state president, Rajanna, said, “We are about eight lakh voters across the state and we will back the BJP-led NDA this time.”
Though Congress too is trying to woo the community with party senior leader Rahul Gandhi promising to conduct the caste census if the party is voted to power, it has failed to gain momentum in the state.
Tapping into this lacuna, BJP is trying to win over OBCs, except Kurubas, who rally behind Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. “Over time, Siddaramaiah is restricting himself to the Kuruba community, leaving leaders of other communities in the lurch. Capitalising on the opportunity, BJP will woo other OBCs and groom new leaders,” a BJP leader said.
The saffron party, following advice from a thinktank, is not depending on regional leaders from these communities to attract voters, but is promoting Modi as their representative in a novel strategy, sources said.
The BJP leadership feels that Veerashaiva Lingayats in Karnataka, by and large, support Modi’s leadership and the party’s gameplan is to woo the rest of them. Forging an alliance with JDS to get Vokkaligas votes and fielding Gowda’s son-in-law Dr CN Manjunath is part of a grand scheme of things, political pundits said.
Former chief minister and senior BJP leader BS Yediyurappa and Siddaramaiah used to woo the communities in their own style with Siddaramaiah claiming himself to be the champion of the AHINDA grouping - an acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits.