Karnataka: Amit Shah to visit Ballari on Thursday as BJP eyes 10 ST assembly seats in five districts

Karnataka is due for assembly polls in about three months, and Shah has been frequenting to the State and participating in strategy sessions as the ruling BJP is wrestling with an aggressive Congress and JD-S.

On Thursday afternoon, Shah will address a public rally at the mining hub of Sandur before engaging with the local MLAs, MPs and senior leaders at Hospet, the capital of the new Vijayanagar district, for a strategy session.

Together Ballari and Vijayanagar districts have 10 assembly seats and seven of them are reserved for SC/STs. These are crucial for the BJP and Shah is focussed on the region as the party seeks to highlight the government amending the law to increase the SC/ST quota in government jobs and educational admissions.

In fact, among the first things the BJP did soon after increasing the quota for STs from 5% to 7% was to hold a ST Morcha rally at Ballari in November. Members of the Valmiki (ST) are concentrated in and around the district, and Transport Minister B Sriramulu has cemented his position as the tallest political figure of the community, and bolstered his image by successfully fighting for a hike in the ST quota.

By addressing a rally at Sandur, the BJP leader will be reaching out to the Valmiki voters in the districts of Ballari, Vijayanagara, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Raichur and Koppal. The State has 15 assembly constituencies reserved for the STs, and the above five districts, barring Koppal, account for 10 seats reserved for the STs. Many of these were traditionally held by the Congress, and the BJP is determined to turn the tide this time, a Hospet-based analyst said, declining to be identified.

More than a decade ago, the region was under the political grip of the former BJP minister and mining baron G Janardhan Reddy. He has floated his own political outfit, the Kalyana Karnataka Praghathi Paksha, and announced he will be taking on the BJP. Reddy is a former political mentor of Sriramulu, and the BJP is concerned about his new party eating into its votes and helping the Congress in the process. Shah’s meetings, BJP leaders think, will neutralise Reddy’s influence in the region. Shah’s visit, a political observer said, might hasten the political activity and force fence-sitters to decide which way they want to go. There are quite a few MLAs planning to switch over to other parties once the assembly session is over. The budget session will be over on Thursday, and these MLAs are expected to make their political leanings clear to their voters.