BJP prospects ‘brighter’ in coastal, central Karnataka

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: A third survey conducted by the ruling BJP on its prospects in the upcoming Assembly elections has returned a verdict the saffron party is not too pleased about, for it is expected to win only 60-70 seats in the current scenario.

In 2018 Assembly polls, the saffron party did not get the required number of seats to form the government on its own. Subsequently, 17 legislators joined the BJP to help BS Yediyurappa become the CM for a fourth time. Much water has flowed under the bridge in the last four-and-a-half years, and only four to five months are left for the State elections.

The change in leadership, a series of natural calamities, especially in Bengaluru city, corruption charges against ministers and “underperformance” of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the last one-and-a-half years he has held office have not gone unnoticed by the people. Bommai has been fighting a lone battle to win back the confidence of the people.

With no support forthcoming from his ministerial colleagues, Bommai has been touring the State to return to power after Union Home Minister Amit Shah fixed a target of 150 seats for the party to win out of the total 224 Assembly elections.

Since the popularity graph of the ruling BJP is dipping, the State BJP unit in general and CM Bommai in particular engaged relevant agencies to find out the number of seats it could win in the next elections. At 50-60, the first two survey reports gave fewer seats to the party due to the sustained campaign by the Congress such as “40 per cent commission” against some ministers.

Besides the corruption charges, the government’s “lukewarm” response to unprecedented floods that wreaked havoc in Bengaluru and “delayed” action in flooding of North Karnataka is telling on its prospectus.

Having understood that the position of the Congress is better than its own, the party has lined up some measures to be taken up on an “urgent” basis in order to improve its tally within the next 4-5 months. Its high command is putting pressure on the State unit to do all it can to win at least 120 seats in the crucial 2023 Assembly polls.

The Delhi leaders want the CM to develop a proincumbency module as was recently done in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. With there not being a strong opposition in those two states, the task was not too difficult. That is not the case in Karnataka, what with the Congress all set to grab power to avenge the pulling down of the Congress-JDS coalition government by “engineering defections”.

Since then, the grand old party has not left a chance to achieve its mission, and has continuously worked at tarnishing the BJP government’s image. Besides, the Congress leaders have undertaken several padayatras and rallies and succeeded in improving its pro-people image.

Both KPCC President DK Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah are leaving no stone unturned to grab power from the saffron party. According to sources, the BJP wants to make some more surveys in the coming months to get to feel the pulse of people.

Its position is said to have “slightly improved” in Central and Coastal Karnataka, but is fighting with its back to the wall in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. Every copy of the survey report is being copied to the high command, which is proactively monitoring the developments in the State regularly.

The government does not believe that surveys done by the police intelligence department will not be unbiased, so it has engaged private agencies to keep itself well-informed. Shah wants the party to win at least 120 seats and to make this happen, the BJP leaders are burning the midnight oil.

This idea is to retain power at any cost. A third survey conducted by the ruling BJP on its prospects in the upcoming Assembly elections has returned a verdict the saffron party is not too pleased about, for it is expected to win only 60-70 seats in the current scenario.

In 2018 Assembly polls, the saffron party did not get the required number of seats to form the government on its own. Subsequently, 17 legislators joined the BJP to help BS Yediyurappa become the CM for a fourth time. Much water has flowed under the bridge in the last four-and-a-half years, and only four to five months are left for the State elections.

The change in leadership, a series of natural calamities, especially in Bengaluru city, corruption charges against ministers and “underperformance” of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the last one-and-a-half years he has held office have not gone unnoticed by the people.

Bommai has been fighting a lone battle to win back the confidence of the people. With no support forthcoming from his