Last Update: March 19, 2023, 14:10 IST
Top BJP leaders have acknowledged that improving poll numbers in the region is key to wresting power on its own. (File/News18)
For decades, the BJP has been struggling to spread its wings in the old Mysuru region dominated by the Vokkaliga community, dominated by the JD(S) and the Congress.
Along with the assembly polls, the BJP is focused on the old Mysore region, where significant electoral gains are crucial for the party to come back to power in Karnataka on its own.
For decades, the BJP has struggled to spread its foothold in the old Mysuru region, dominated by the Vokkaliga community, which is dominated by the JD(S) and the Congress.
The region includes the districts of Ramanagara, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajanagara, Kodagu, Kolar, Tumakuru and Hassan.
JD(S) leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar belong to this community.
Of the 58 assembly seats in these districts, the JD(S) represents 24, the Congress 18 and the BJP 15. The BJP also has the support of expelled BSP MLA N Mahesh, who represents Kollegal in Chamarajanagar district.
In Vokkaliga stronghold of Mandya district, JD(S) has six out of seven MLAs, three out of four in Ramanagara and six out of seven in Hassan.
The JD(S) has four of the 11 seats in Mysuru, while the Congress has four and the BJP three in the district.
The regional party also has three seats in Tumakuru, but the party is wary of Gubbi MLA SR Srinivas, who allegedly voted in favor of the BJP candidate during the Rajya Sabha elections in June last year.
Top BJP leaders have acknowledged that improving poll numbers in the region is key to wresting power on its own.
The party came to power in Karnataka four times and each time it emerged as the single largest party but fell short of the majority mark.
Twice, the party reportedly had to resort to ‘Operation Lotus’ to woo disgruntled opposition members and form a majority government.
However, the BJP put up an impressive performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning 25 out of 28 seats.
Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh won from the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency and JD(S) supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s grandson Prajwal Revanna emerged victorious from Haasan.
To the comfort of the BJP, party-backed independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh won from the Mandya constituency, which has always been a JD(S) stronghold.
Actress-turned-politician Sumalatha, who defeated Nikhil Kumaraswamy, grandson of Deve Gowda and son of former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls extended her “full support” to the BJP on March 11, a day ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to Mandya. To launch several projects including the most ambitious one – the Bengaluru-Mysore Expressway.
The inauguration could have been done in Mysore or Bengaluru, but the Prime Minister chose Mandya.
A political analyst said, “Mandya’s voters are rarely swayed by emotional issues.”
The JD(S) suffered a setback when KR Pet MLA KC Narayana Gowda, who betrayed the party during “Operation Lotus” in 2019 and was among the MLAs who resigned from the Assembly, joined the BJP and successfully contested the bypolls . BJP ticket and became a minister.
With this, the BJP got its first MLA from JD(S) stronghold Mandya. PTI GMS RS SS
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)