In line with the model followed in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, the Karnataka BJP unit is also banking on a door-to-door campaign for the coming Assembly elections. The strategy will help remind voters of the benefits of the party’s central and state schemes and ensure its win, the BJP said after a core committee meeting in Bengaluru on Friday.
“We are not a party that makes too much noise. We have left the job of making noise ahead of the polls to the Congress. At the ground level, we are preparing our booth workers to facilitate a BJP victory. The aim is to win the polls at the booth level,” BJP general secretary C T Ravi said after the core committee meeting.
Senior leaders such as organisation secretary B L Santhosh, central observer Arun Singh, former CM B S Yediyurappa, current CM Basavaraj Bommai, state party president Nalin Kumar Kateel attended the meeting. On Saturday, the party held a special executive meeting for the polls.
Ravi added, “In every Vidhan Sabha seat, nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the people are beneficiaries of one scheme or the other of the state and central governments. We want to convert them into BJP voters. We have drawn up a big plan for this. The plan brought success in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh and will be used in Karnataka.”
In comparison to the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), the BJP is being seen as lagging in preparation for the polls. The Opposition parties recently embarked on tours around the state.
At the core committee meeting, the BJP also drew up plans to travel the state in four teams headed by its main leaders – Yediyurappa, Bommai, Kateel and Singh – after the state’s Budget session later this month.
A team each will go to Kalyana Karnataka (the region that was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state) and Kittur Karnataka (known previously as Mumbai-Karnataka), while two teams will visit the old Mysore region.
“We will have four teams travelling to the majority of districts. A major rally – Mahasangama – will be held in Davangere at the conclusion (of the tours) in March,” Ravi said.
“We will fight the polls on the plank of development and our ideals. The Congress may make a lot of noise and the JD(S) may wait for a hung Assembly but we are sure of coming to power on a full mandate. They will make the sound but we will be on the ground,” Ravi said.
Elaborating on the strategy, Ravi said the party has been working on the C and D category constituencies – where it is considered weak – in the last year.
Ravi said, “We have a list of the beneficiaries of government schemes. We have to work on the data to connect them to the party. If we remind them of the benefits they have got, that is enough for us to succeed. This strategy worked in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and Uttarakhand.”
Another plan ahead of the polls is to send LED vans to every constituency to announce the BJP government’s schemes while also highlighting developmental programmes undertaken in each constituency. “Our intention is to win 50 per cent of the votes in every seat on the model of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. We will have a clear majority and this is our intent,” Ravi said.
The BJP has already identified winnable candidates. The state election committee will subsequently send a list to the Centre and a parliamentary board will take the final decision.
The party also said it would fight the elections under a collective umbrella and not project a CM candidate.
“There is no confusion on this issue (leadership for the polls). Basavaraj Bommai is the CM; the guidance will come from Yediyurappa; the party president is Nalin Kumar Kateel. To support us, there are central leaders and the great leadership of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi. We have all these ingredients. Unlike the Congress, central leaders are beneficial for us and not a liability,” Ravi said.
In February, Modi will visit Karnataka twice or thrice. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and national president JP Nadda will also visit the state, Ravi said.
At the special executive meeting, Kateel said the BJP government had provided Rs 1,000 crore in funds for the development of constituencies.
Yediyurappa said that the leadership of Modi and Shah would help the BJP win Karnataka.
“Who are the leaders in the Congress party? Is it Rahul Gandhi? We have PM Narendra Modi – a great leader who is loved by the world. We have Amit Shah. The BJP will win the Karnataka polls and all other polls,” he said.
Saying that there are no homes in Karnataka that have not been touched by the schemes of the Modi government, the former CM added, “There are multiple schemes under the Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas initiated by the state and central governments that are reaching the homes of the people.” Yediyurappa said the state Budget would also feature schemes “beyond the expectations of people”.
