Now BJP to invite Modi for mega bash?

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru

After seeing the grand success of senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah’s birthday bash in Davangere, the ruling BJP is learnt to have changed its plans on its third anniversary celebration and may request Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself to launch the event. The BJP had organised a public event in Doddaballapur on July 28 to coincide with the third anniversary of BJP rule in Karnataka and the first anniversary of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s government but it was cancelled at the last minute following the murder of a Hindu activist in Dakshina Kannada district just two days before the celebration. The outburst by party workers against the failure of the BJP government to protect the lives of Hindus in the Coastal area forced the government to put off the event temporarily

Now, after seeing the overwhelming response of people to the Congress event in Davangere, state BJP leaders want to have a function bigger than that of Siddu’s Amrut Mahotsav for which PM Modi will be invited. A majority of state BJP leaders are not good orators and cannot match the oratory of Siddaramaiah. Former CM and the Lingayat leader of BJP, B.S.Yediyurappa was once a good speaker but now age seems to have caught up with him. Neither of the two former CMs, Jagadish Shettar or D.V. Sadananda Gowda can be considered crowd pullers nor does Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai fall in the category

The only two leaders who can evoke an enthusiastic response from the audience are BJP National General Secretary C.T. Ravi and Vijayapura City MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal. Among BJP ministers, not many have the ability to hold the attention of the crowd for long. As for KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar, he is a better orator compared with State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel.

As per the original plan, the state BJP had invited its national president, J.P.Nadda and National General Secretary Arun Singh as chief guests for the Doddaballapur event. Now state leaders are reportedly consulting Bommai on whether Modi could be invited for the anniversary event to give a boost to party prospects ahead of the 2023 polls.

A leader on the condition of anonymity told News Trail that the BJP may hold this programme in Mangaluru or Hubballi considered is bastions.

State BJP leaders are no doubt shocked over the response to Siddu’s Davangere event and more so when he and DK Shivakumar were like poles apart. They feel only PM Modi can counter and expose the Congress Party. It was Modi’s jibe at ‘Siddaramaiah’s Dus Percent Commission Sarkar’ that turned the mood of the state electorate in the 2018 Assembly polls.