From ignored to essential: Candidates go all out to woo apartment dwellers in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Lok Sabha candidates in the city have taken their campaigns to the urban middle and upper middle class voters in apartments and gated communities, recognising the need to tap into this segment that has seen significant growth over the past decade.

Although these apartments comprise significant migrant populations, candidates opine that they are a voter base that "cannot be ignored". 

This, political analyst Venkatesh Thogarighatta noted, is due to a boom in these establishments, particularly in the northern and eastern parts of the city.

“Maybe 10 years ago, you could ignore apartment dwellers but that is not the case anymore because there are a significant number of voters in apartment complexes. You cannot win an election without them today, and they have to be approached differently,” he said.

This rise apartment complexes within gated campuses also contributes to higher voter apathy among owners compared to individual home owners because they “receive little from politicians”, noted Thogarighatta.

This shift in balance to apartment complexes, more so over the past five years, calls for tailored political campaigns to reach out to thousands of voters at once.

For the Congress, this entails basing campaigns on the promise of Brand Bengaluru, timely funds for projects and heightened accountability of government servants. For the BJP candidates, campaigns are largely based on their past work and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “image”.

“Many of these areas are developed in an unplanned manner because the funds that were necessary for their overall development were poorly distributed,” said Mansoor Ali Khan, the Bangalore Central candidate from Congress.

“Therefore, I have been trying to convince residents of my vision of sustainable development, affordable education, and faster metro and suburban railway work with timely funds from the Union  government,” he
said.

While Prof M V Rajeev Gowda, the Congress candidate for Bangalore North constituency, acknowledged a different approach to apartments was necessary owing to different voter aspirations, he was careful to note that accessing them was a challenge.

“We can access these apartments only through their associations but we know of their concerns because of the apartment cell we established last year to understand the issues faced by apartment dwellers. This could work in our favour,” Gowda said.

However, BJP candidates such as P C Mohan and Tejasvi Surya are facing little challenge with apartments in their respective constituencies, selling their campaign on PM Modi’s image. 

Surya’s campaigns over the past week were aimed at increasing voter turnout in his constituency Bangalore South, banking on the “Modi guarantee” and his work in five years.

Mohan was quick to note that apartments were his stronghold, with party connections in resident welfare associations that the Congress “cannot reach”. 

“People are looking at the national political scenario and PM Modi’s image. They have seen the work we have done and what we can do for them going forward so I know they want PM Modi for the third time and me for the fourth time,” Mohan said.