PM Modi wraps up Karnataka campaign with 19 rallies, 6 road shows

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up a high-decibel BJP campaign for the Karnataka assembly elections, that ended on Monday, by addressing 19 rallies (public addresses) and six road shows including the last one in Bengaluru that covered 26 kms, in about seven days, taking the BJP versus Congress contest to its peak for the May 10 polling. Faced with anti-incumbency factors, the ruling BJP in the state is certainly banking on Modi magic to return to office in its only bastion in the southern part of the country.

With BJP pulling no stops to beat Congress, its main rival in the state, the party held a total of 3116 poll campaign rallies across the state since the elections were declared, according to the party’s own records. The party’s own estimates showed there were 311 visits by party leaders to temples and Mutts in the state, 9125 public meetings, 1377 roadshows thrown in, with 9077 street corner meetings held across the state.

While Modi was the main campaigner for the saffron party, a total of 128 national leaders, including 15 Union ministers (excluding PM) hit the campaign trail in Karnataka this poll season, that comes less than a year before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Apart from 26 Modi shows, home minister Amit Shah held the highest number of public outreaches including 16 rallies and 15 road shows. Party chief J P Nadda held 10 rallies and 16 road shows, Union minister Smriti Irani addressed 17 public meetings and two road shows. Chief ministers from BJP-ruled states campaigned for days with Yogi Adityanath (UP) holding nine rallies and three road shows, Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam) had 15 rallies and one road show, Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh) addressed six rallies and one road show, while Maharashtra CM and Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis together addressed 17 rallies.

Central ministers who campaigned in the state include Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Ashwini Vaishnav, Gajendra Sekhawat, V K Singh, Arjun Munda, Jyotiraditya Scindia, G kishen Reddy, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.

With the Basavaraj Bommai government faced with anti-incumbency BJP’s campaign rested on Modi connecting directly with people, picking up local issues and local icons, instead of asking for votes in the name of state leaders. Party’s veteran leader and former state CM B S Yediyurappa, replaced with Bommai in 2021, for his age (75-plus) factor, however, was the main state leader who campaigned across the state along with Modi.

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