bThe Bharatiya Janata Party’s list of star campaigners for the Karnataka elections included several prominent names from outside the state – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seven of his Union cabinet colleagues, party president JP Nadda and three chief ministers, among others. During the election campaign, journalists were naturally curious to know how these star campaigners are swaying public opinion ahead of the May 10 elections.
Last week on my way to Mysuru, I stopped to chat with a group of about a dozen people gathered at a market in Mandya, a Janata Dal (Secular) bastion. PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Nadda and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath have addressed public meetings and held roadshows in Mandya in the last four-five months.
I started with a question about PM Modi: “What was his message to you, the double engine government?” This started an animated discussion. It was not a friendly crowd to the BJP as they started complaining about price rise, unemployment and lack of governance in their state. But the Modi government will get support in 2024 (Lok Sabha elections). Who else is there?” said a man in his 60s. Many nodded in agreement. When I started asking about other central BJP leaders visiting Mandya, they fell silent and looked blank. engaged. “What about Yogi Adityanath?” I asked to break the silence. It responded immediately- “Bulldozer Baba!” “Encounter Baba!” He didn’t have much to say about his message but he made it clear. Had struck a chord in form.
Similar responses were received on traveling to other parts of southern Karnataka. After PM Modi, the UP CM was arguably the only leader from outside Karnataka whose name sounded familiar in the hinterland of the state. The news of bulldozers and police encounters in UP must have reached far and wide. Adityanath has another strong bond with Karnataka. His Gorakhnath Math and several influential sects in the southern state, including the Adichunchanagiri Math in Mandya and the Jogi Math in Mangaluru, follow the Nath Panth tradition.
Given Adityanath’s influence in Karnataka, it was surprising to see his limited campaigning in the state. He addressed only 10 meetings on three different days. He said, ‘There is no need to see any conspiracy here. He (UP CM) was in great demand and we wanted him to spend at least a week in Karnataka. But he wanted to focus on the civic elections in UP. This reporter.
Elections are due in UP’s 760 urban local bodies – 17 municipal corporations, 199 city councils and 544 nagar panchayats – and the chief minister wants to focus on that. Adityanath has campaigned for the party by visiting 40 districts of UP in the last fortnight.
Read also: BJP government is focusing on development, not appeasement: Yogi Adityanath
coming out of the shadows
These civic elections are like mini-assembly elections, involving 4.3 crore voters (as against 15 crore in the previous assembly elections). they will choose 17 mayor1,420 corporators for municipal corporations and about 12,500 members of city councils and panchayats.
There are three reasons why Adityanath is focusing so much on the urban local body elections at a time when his party colleagues are scrambling to campaign extensively in Karnataka and prove their mass appeal.
First, he has always been in the shadow of a popular prime minister. It is his time to come out of it and show that he can win elections in UP for BJP on his own. In 2017, when the BJP won the UP assembly elections, the credit went to PM Modi and it was justified. When the party won again in 2022, the credit was shared between PM Modi – due to his popularity and BJP’s welfare schemes including free food grains during Covid-19 – and CM Adityanath. In December 2017, nearly eight months after Adityanath became CM, when the BJP won 14 of the 16 mayoral seats, party president Shah said it was the people’s “BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision and performance”. Another example of unwavering faith in the politics of , This showed that people have accepted the economic reforms, Said Shah in the context of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Adityanath then credited the victory to Modi’s development policies and “the guidance of Amit Shah”.
But the 2023 urban local body elections are about him and his governance. His record in making UP safe – his mafia Remarks The underlying theme is the central issue in the elections to the local bodies. This comes just after the killing of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, his brother and son. Another dreaded gangster was Anil Dujana were killed In the police encounter in Meerut last week
“The world runs on the law of Karma…This nature equalizes everyone (People pay for their actions),” The Indian Express Yogi Adityanath quoted from a rally last Tuesday in Prayagraj, where Atiq once ran his fiefdom.
The Yogi Adityanath government has been criticized by civil rights activists and political opponents for the killing of the gangster-turned-politician and his brother in police custody. Central BJP leaders are silent, leaving the Chief Minister of the state to fend for himself. The urban body polls are an opportunity for Adityanath to showcase the popularity of his tough measures on the law and order front. This is another reason to focus these elections on home turf, giving Karnataka only three days to campaign.
The third reason is Adityanath’s attempt to break the back of an already demoralized opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) is trying to increase its base through social engineering in local elections. Party not fielding Any Yadav candidate in the mayoral election prefers to give party tickets to Brahmins, non-Yadav OBCs, Muslims and upper castes.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), whose electoral fortunes have been on a downward spiral, is trying to woo Muslims, fielding 11 candidates for the post of mayor from minority community. It won two of the 16 mayoral seats, but this year Mayawati’s party is looking to consolidate and expand its support base at the expense of the SP.
Of course, it doesn’t matter to the BJP.
Yogi Adityanath will be hoping to silence his detractors from within and outside his party when the results of the Karnataka assembly elections are out along with the UP urban local body elections on May 13.
DK Singh is the political editor of ThePrint. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)