Win all five Bengaluru corporations, Ram Madhav exhorts BJP

Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav, appointed as the election in-charge for the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) elections, on Saturday, chaired a key strategy meeting at the party’s state headquarters and urged party leaders to go “all out” to ensure a clean sweep in all five corporations.

Ram Madhav is scheduled to revisit Bengaluru on February 28 and March 1 to review the party’s preparedness further and fine-tune the election strategy.

Former chief minister B S Yediyurappa, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka, Legislative Council Opposition Leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, BJP’s city MPs and MLAs and the party’s office-bearers attended the meeting.

The state leaders apprised Madhav of key organisational challenges arising from the reorganisation of the city into five corporations, particularly the mismatch created by the Legislative Assembly constituencies being split across multiple corporations following delimitation to allegedly favour the ruling Congress.

They also highlighted that the elections were being held after a 10-year gap, which has resulted in the loss of an entire generation of grassroots leadership.

Madhav, while exhorting the leaders in the closed-door meeting, told them that he had anchored 10 elections, including the Jammu and Kashmir polls, and the strike rate has been cent per cent.

He stressed the need for aggressive organisational mobilisation, noting that the upcoming GBA polls are crucial for reclaiming Bengaluru.

The BJP must bridge that gap through intensive cadre-level engagement, as the reservation fixation and electoral procedures would give the party ample time to strengthen the ward-level committees, he said. 

According to the party sources, the BJP plans to appoint state-level leaders for each corporation and hold separate meetings in all Assembly segments.

Each constituency will hold meetings involving the Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to ensure better coordination and monitoring. The party is aiming for a “100 per cent strike rate” across all five corporations, they said.

Later, addressing the media, BJP state president B Y Vijayendra said the party has held marathon discussions on the GBA elections and expressed confidence of winning all five corporations.

He alleged that Bengaluru has seen no development over the last two-and-a-half years due to corruption, price hikes and governance paralysis under the Congress government.