Bengaluru: Bike rallies, Jai Shri Ram chants at Shobha Karandlaje’s rally

Bengaluru: Bike rallies, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants, and basking in Modi’s glory are Shobha Karandlaje’s trump cards for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Karandlaje, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate for the Bengaluru North constituency, has begun her campaign to win the polls against Rajeev Gowda of the Indian National Congress (INC).

A saffron-shawl-clad Karandlaje, wearing a deliberately saffronised Gandhi cap, smiled and hugged party workers, posing for pictures with many as she hopped from one temple to another during her recent campaign in Vijinapura and Ramamurthy Nagar. Accompanied by a sea of young men on bikes, flaunting saffron flags with the party logo, Karandlaje appeared buoyed by the crowd’s attention.

Starting the trail at 7:30 am, the BJP’s only female candidate from the city began by garlanding statues of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Nadaprabhu Kempegowda in Ramamurthy Nagar. She offered prayers at Murugan Temple in Kothanur Main Road, Lakshmi Venkateshwara Swamy Temple in Dooravani Nagar, and Eshwara Temple in Kalkere, as part of the Hindutva induced strategy of the BJP.

Saffron confetti and smoke from the continuous bursting of firecrackers filled the air as Karandlaje walked hand-in-hand with party workers. However, Karandlaje’s trail, while a crowd-puller, failed to reach the smaller colonies in the ward that are in dire need of better infrastructure and basic facilities. Nevertheless, the trail passed through NRI Colony, parts of Ambedkar Nagar, and Banjara Layout.

The candidate, who recently refuted claims labelling her an “outsider” in Bengaluru North, seemed pressured to prove her connection to the constituency. She visited a party worker’s house near Punyabhumi Layout to eat holige and obbattu served by them.

Byrathi Basavaraj, the BJP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from K R Puram constituency, was present at Eshwara temple to support Karandlaje along with other party workers. She sought his blessings by bowing down and touching his feet, a typical Hindu way of greeting elders. While the majority of the crowd consisted of men, several middle-aged women party workers also lauded Karandlaje’s trail.