Shah to woo Vokkaligas from Mandya tomorrow

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Mysuru: The State BJP leaders are entrusted with the responsibility of assembling at least a lakh people in Mandya on Friday when Union Home and Co-operation Minister Amit Shah will address a public meeting.

Excise Minister and Mandya District-In-Charge Minister K Gopalaiah and Co-operation Minister ST Somashekar visited the Maddur Milk Producers’ Union Limited where Shah will inaugurate a new building and later come to Mandya to address the public meeting.

The duo also inspected the spot of the public meeting in Mandya city and held discussions with the local officials. Since Shah’s visit has a lot of political significance ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections, the state BJP leaders have taken the event seriously and resolved to arrange for a crowd of at least one lakh on Saturday.

More than the Dairy function, the union home minister is coming to Mandya with a mission to extend the base of BJP in old Mysuru districts comprising Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Ramanagar, and Tumakuru. More importantly, the lotus party wants to make inroads into the Vokkaliga dominant districts of Mandya and Ramanagar where only two parties, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) are strong.

Never in the history of Mandya district (except in the 2019 by-election in the KR Pet constituency), the lotus party has never bloomed in any of the constituencies even though the heavy weight of BJP and former CM, BS Yediyurappa was born and brought up in Bhookanakere village in KR Pet taluk. Since the beginning, the people of Mandya have considered the BJP as the party of North India and the Upper castes.

So, the BJP candidates are never taken seriously in any of the elections as their deposit money has been forfeited in every election. In fact, finding the candidates for all the eight Assembly segments of the district is a big problem for the saffron party.

In the wake of this, Shah is coming up with a specific mission of expanding the party base in the 2023 Assembly polls by winning at least two to three seats in Mandya. To achieve this, he is reportedly in talks with Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambareesh to join BJP and help the lotus party to bloom in the coming polls.

The BJP has offered a ticket to her son Abhishek Ambareesh from any constituency of his choice. But, so far there is no positive response from her to Shah’s offering.