Amit Shah set to embark on Old Mysuru 'project'

The BJP is honing its ‘Hindutva+development’ strategy for the Old Mysuru region, a weak spot for the party where Union Home Minister Amit Shah will hit the ground and strategise for the 2023 Assembly election.

While Shah will land in Bengaluru late Thursday evening, the Congress has planned a massive convention in Vijayapura up north on Friday to attack the BJP government over the delay in the Upper Krishna Project.

As a result, the Belagavi session of the legislature will end on Thursday and not Friday as planned. “There are various programmes on Dec 30, so we will finish the session on Thursday evening,” Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri told the Assembly.

Shah’s visit is being positioned as BJP’s surge in the Vokkaliga-dominated Old Mysuru where JD(S) and Congress are rivals.

BJP national general secretary C T Ravi said the party will give “special” focus on the Old Mysuru region where, he said, winning more seats is necessary to get a majority, a lesson the party learnt in the 2008 and 2018 polls.

“Development and Hindutva will be our plank,” Ravi said. “While caste is the reality, our party runs on Hindutva ideology that incorporates all castes. Hindutva isn’t a religion, but a cultural legacy. All people who come under this legacy, irrespective of their worship methods, are Hindus,” he explained.

The BJP wants to win more seats in Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Kolar and Chikkaballapur. “We have a report card to show people. Hasn’t PM-KISAN reached farmers of Old Mysuru? Haven’t people benefited from the Bengaluru-Mysuru corridor? Milk subsidy was started by the BJP. The Hassan airport, H D Deve Gowda’s dream, is being implemented by the BJP. We have so many such things that we will tell people,” Ravi said.

On Friday afternoon, Shah, also union cooperation minister, will address a Jana Sankalpa rally and inaugurate a mega dairy in Mandya. That evening, he will speak at a cooperation convention at Palace Grounds followed by a meeting with party leaders. On Saturday, Shah will go to Devanahalli to break ground for the Suraksha Nagar project in the Avathi village. Then, he will visit the Souharda Sahakari Federation in Malleswaram, followed by a meeting with booth presidents and booth-level agents at Palace Grounds.

One lakh people are expected at the Mandya rally, Cooperation Minister S T Somashekar said. “People from Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar and Hassan will attend the convention,” he said.