BJP plays on caste politics to counter graft charges

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Ahead of the crucial Assembly elections, the ruling BJP has resorted to quota politics with a special focus on Vokkaligas, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes in order to retain power in the State.

The hike in quota for SC/ ST communities, unveiling of the statue of ‘Nadaprabhu’ Kempegowda and garlanding the statue of Saint Kanakadasa are the clear indications of BJP going in for ‘caste politics’ to counter corruption to checkmate the opposition Congress Party.

Going a step ahead, the saffron party has started projecting itself as the messiah of backward classes with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Prime Minister who belongs to an OBC community. As per the earlier schedule, Modi was supposed to put the flowers on the statues of Kanakadasa and Maharshi Valmiki which are situated in Vidhana Soudha and Legislators’ Home from the chopper.

But the plan was changed after the State leaders explained to the PM about the need to come personally and pay floral tributes personally along with the seers. Then, Modi came to Vidhana Soudha and Legislators’ Home directly from the HAL Airport by road, and paid floral tributes along with the seers of Adichunchanagiri Mutt and Kanaka Gurupeeta, two important mutts of Karnataka.

The Kanaka Gurupeeta seer presented the ‘Kambali’ to Modi with which he went and showered petals on Kanaka’s statue. In fact, the PM’s visit coincided with Kanaka Jayanti and it came in handy for the BJP to woo the Kuruba votes.

The purpose of paying floral tributes to Maharshi Valmiki by the PM was aimed as garnering the support of Scheduled Tribe community votes who are in majority in Chitradurga, Davangere, Ballari, Gadag, Haveri, Vijayapura and Bagalkot districts.

The SC/ST communities are elated after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai hiked reservation for them from 13 to 15 per cent and from 4-7 per cent respectively on the basis of recommendation of Justice Nagamohan Das Commission. Naturally, both these communities are happy since this demand was pending for more than 30 years to 40 years.

For this reason, the CM has been stressing this point in every public meeting held as part of Jan Sankalp Yatra in districts. Secondly, the statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda was prepared within 15 months. The bhumi puja was performed on June 27, 2020 by the then Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, and it was unveiled on November 11, 2022.

The Vokkaligas have a special devotion towards Kempegowda, a chieftain, who built Bengaluru, with over 200 tanks, markets for various professions and other facilities. The bronze statue has been installed near Bengaluru Airport, which has been named as Kempegowda International Airport.

The JDS leaders say the statue of Kempegowda had been installed by BJP in order to make a foray into the Vokkaliga dominated districts like Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan, Ramanagar, Chamarajanagar, Tumkur, Chikkaballapur.

The saffron party has drawn up a big plan to strengthen its position in south Karnataka which is dominated by Congress and JDS parties in all the elections held so far. If BJP manages to make foray into the Vokkaliga belt, it would become tough for the JDS which had won all the eight seats in 2018 Assembly polls.

But, in the changed scenario, the position of JDS was not comfortable since the Congress Party was showing improvement every day. The next task before BJP was to poach the backward classes votes for which it plans to play the PM Modi’s caste.

The CM is exploring the possibilities of hiking reservations for them for the political benefits. The BJP has understood the importance of every community in the next election to retain power for which it was ready to do anything