PM Modi gives BJP launchpad in poll-bound Karnataka

BJP has set a target of winning a minimum of 150 out of total 224 seats

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday sought to woo voters in north Karnataka by showcasing the development and social welfare programmes thereby giving the ruling BJP a launchpad in the run-up to the Assembly elections due in about three months. This is Modi's second visit to Karnataka in less than 10 days after his trip to Hubballi on January 12 where he inaugurated a national youth festival and staged a massive road show.

The visit gains significance, as the ruling BJP prepares for Assembly polls and has set a target of winning a minimum of 150 out of total 224 seats. Though today's events were government programmes, Modi's push for BJP's developmental agenda in his speeches, while targeting the opposition parties, without naming any, and accusing them of vote bank politics, had political connotations attached to this visit.

Modi's visit and BJP government's string of developmental projects and schemes in the two districts of the Kalyana Karnataka region, earlier Hyderabad Karnataka region which is considered to be the backyard of Congress's national president Mallikarjun Kharge (with Kalaburagi his home town and former constituency), are seen with political significance. The BJP aims to improve its tally in the region, where the Congress is a force to reckon with.

In the 2013 polls, Congress bagged 22 seats and BJP shared second place with JD(S) with just 5 seats. While B S Yediyurappa's KJP (Karnataka Janata Paksha), which he later merged with BJP, got 3 and others won 5. In the 2008 Assembly polls too, when "resourceful" mining barons- Reddy brothers- of Ballari held sway, Congress managed to bag 19 seats, leaving 15 for the BJP and 5 for the JD(S), and others 1.

At Kodekal village in Yadgiri district, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone and inaugurated various developmental projects for irrigation, drinking water, and a national highway Later in the afternoon, he launched the 'Hakku Patra' (land title deed) distribution drive to over 52,000 nomadic Lambani (Banjara) tribes at Malkhed in Kalaburagi district. Without naming the Congress, he blamed the party's "vote bank" politics for the backwardness of certain regions of the State. "Earlier governments had declared several districts, including Yadgiri as backward, and had shirked their responsibilities. The reason for this region lagging behind in development is the previous governments here did not spare time on thinking about how to get rid of backwardness from here, leave aside putting in efforts towards it (development)," he said.

Yadagiri is part of the 'Kalyana Karnataka' or the Hyderabad Karnataka region as it was earlier known. These districts that were under the erstwhile rule of Nizams of Hyderabad are among the backward regions of the State. The region, comprising Bidar, Ballari, Vijayanagara, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur, and Yadgir, enjoys special status under the Constitution (Article 371J) owing to its backwardness.

Referring to the positive aspect of having a BJP government at both the State and Centre, he said double engine government means double benefit, double welfare and double fast-paced development, and Karnataka is the best example for this. He complimented the Basavaraj Bommai government for the fast-paced development of the north Karnataka region At Malkhed, once the capital city of the Rashtrakuta dynasty, he said, "It's a big day for the people of Banjara (Lambani nomadic) community as over 50,000 people will get their own roof by way of Hakku Patra," as he distributed five 'Hakku Patra' to five nomadic couples on the occasion. This Hakku Patra would secure the future of thousands of people living in the "Thandas" (Lambani habitats) in Kalaburagi, Bidar, Yadgiri, Raichur and Vijayapura districts, he said, adding that it's big step taken by the State government towards social justice.

It is said Karnataka has the second highest population of Lambanis (Banjaras) in the country, who are considered among 101 sub-castes that have been recognised as Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the State. The community, earlier by and large with the Congress, now seems to have veered towards the BJP, which the party wants to keep intact and wants to build upon, party sources said. The community has a considerable presence in Kalyana Karnataka region.

Kharge lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, his first-ever electoral defeat in his long political career, to Umesh Jadhav, a Banjara community leader, fielded by the BJP. In 1993, it was recommended to give 'Thandas' revenue village status, but the political party that remained in power for the longest period used the Lambanis as a vote bank and never tried to improve the living condition of these backward families, Modi said in a dig at the Congress. "Those living in Thandas had to wage a long struggle for their rights and face many difficulties. They had to wait for long," the Prime Minister said. "But, now, the depressing atmosphere is changing. I want to assure the Banjara mothers that their son (Modi) is sitting in Delhi."

As Modi distributed title deeds to nomadic Lambani (Banjara) tribes in Kalaburagi district, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah charged the ruling BJP in Karnataka with "feasting on the meals" prepared by the previous Congress government he headed. The senior Congress leader said the BJP was trying to project as if they were giving revenue village status to ‘Thandas’ (this community's habitations), which was "misleading".

According to the State government, the move to distribute these deeds would benefit 52,072 nomads in five districts of north Karnataka, providing them a "permanent roof", and said these 'Thandas' have already been declared as revenue villages by the State government. The fact, according to Siddaramaiah, was that the process to make Thandas revenue villages was initiated during his government from 2013 to 2018. “The then revenue minister Kagodu Thimmappa in my government brought amendments to the Forest Act and the Land Revenue Act with a slogan ‘Those who till the land should own it’. Those were historic amendments,” the opposition leader in the State Asembly, told reporters. The Congress could not give the ‘Hakku Patras’ to the beneficiaries as it lost power later, he said. “The BJP without doing anything in the last four years has suddenly started claiming that they did everything. The BJP is feasting on the meals prepared by us because of impending elections,” Siddaramaiah alleged.