This is Modi’s fifth visit to the southern state since January 12. He will undertake a 2-km roadshow in Mandya district today afternoon, a region that did not elect a single BJP candidate to the assembly in the election five years ago. The district got one MLA after JD-S member KC Narayana Gowda switched sides in 2019, one of the 17 MLAs who helped the BJP dislodge the Congress-JD-S coalition to form the government.
The BJP got a shot in the arm ahead of Modi’s visit with South Indian film star turned Lok Sabha member from Mandya, Sumalatha Ambareesh pledging her support to the Prime Minister. She had won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with the BJP’s backing. The BJP is hopeful of winning some seats in the district with Ambareesh campaigning for the party.
The PM will open new projects worth about Rs 16,000 crore as the BJP is campaigning hard to turn beneficiaries of new projects into votes for the party.
He will open the 118-km Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway, an ambitious project built at a cost of Rs 8480 crore. The new road will cut the travel time between the two cities to about 75 minutes from 3 hours earlier and make travel among parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala faster.
Mandya, the Vokkaliga heartland of Karnataka, is currently a problem for the BJP, as Gowda, the party’s sole MLA from the district, is planning to switch to the Congress and contest from there. Looks like he will participate in the PM’s event today, and then take a call on the switch over as the polls near.
The BJP plans to mobilise people from the neighbouring Mysuru, Hassan, Ramanagara, Chamarajanagar districts for the Sunday meeting. The five districts together account for 32 assembly seats and five Lok Sabha seats. Except Mysuru city, all other places have a strong presence of both JD-S and Congress.The BJP is working hard to broaden its presence as a win in most of these seats would mean an easy march towards the 113-seat mark it would need to form the government in the 224-seat assembly.
At Dharwad district, the PM will dedicate the new IIT-Dharwad campus to the nation and the longest railway platform at the local railway station, besides launching work on many other projects.
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