Ahead of LS election, BJP launches voter outreach campaign

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: In an attempt to boost the registration of new voters, the BJP in Karnataka on Friday launched an extensive voter outreach campaign.

The party’s Bengaluru South Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya launched the campaign ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election and ahead of PM Modi’s visit to Bengaluru on August 26.

The move by the BJP, the principal opposition party in the state, has earned criticism as it comes when the party is struggling to appoint a leader of the opposition for more than a hundred days in the state.

While experts questioned the need for the campaign, they also highlighted the BJP’s desperate attempts to focus on the upcoming election.

“The BJP has distanced itself from Karnataka state politics and they have started focusing on the Lok Sabha election. The absence of LoP for over a hundred days is one of the facts that they don’t care about the state as of now. They have already started such campaigns in a few other states as well”, said a political expert.

There are 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka of which the BJP won 25 seats in 2019. Congress, JD(S), and an independent candidate won one seat, respectively.

Senior Political observer Muzaffar Assadi told News Trail that the BJP is likely to win 15 seats in the upcoming election irrespective of the efforts the party might make.

“It is not about the campaign that the BJP is launching, but it is about who will lead it. Is it going to be B. S. Yediyurappa or anyone else? There are some chances for the BJP’s campaigns to be successful if BSY leads it, as he can pull the votes of Lingayats”, he said, stressing the fact that state and central elections can’t be compared.

Further, Assadi also said the factors that the BJP and Modi relied upon in the previous elections will not work as Rahul Gandhi has emerged as the opposition face.

Modi used dynastic politics and accused Congress of the same in the previous elections which won him seats. Interestingly, Modi, in his recent I-Day speech, resorted to the same charges.

“This time, Rahul Gandhi has emerged as the strong opposition face. Modi cannot win votes with the same old tactics as Rahul Gandhi has become popular through the Bharat Jodo Yatra”, he said.