Undeterred by protests, BJP continues pro-CAA outreach

Amidst a wave of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on the one hand and chaos over Cabinet expansion on the other, the BJP in Karnataka has been quietly laying the groundwork to garner support for the controversial legislation.

While Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had launched an outreach programme on January 6, to pool in support for the CAA, the party cadre, in a span of one month, reached out to 32.32 lakh houses across the state.

“We have ensured that we reach out to people right from the gram panchayat level,” the party’s general secretary and convener for CAA outreach N Ravi Kumar said.

Also, at the level of each booth and covering 47,312 booths (of a total of 58,000 booths), the party has conducted meetings with local residents. That apart, about 16.54 lakh offline signatures in support of the legislation have been collected, Kumar added.

The party cadre said they would continue their efforts till March 15 and try to reach every household by then.

“The plan is to reach out to at least 100 houses in every booth limit,” BJP Bengaluru South district president N R Ramesh said. He said the party members went door to door collecting signatures and phone numbers of the residents.

So far, in Bangalore South district alone, which has 10 Assembly constituencies, the party workers have reached out to about 50% of the houses.

In mosques too

“In Yediyur ward, there are 11,553 houses, of which we have covered half of the population till now. We have visited mosques too, explaining the legislation to every resident,” Ramesh said.

In Bengaluru North, of the 3,032 booths, the limits of almost all booths have been covered, according to B Narayan Gowda, BJP Bengaluru North district incharge.

“We have stopped the campaign here as of now, as we have covered majority of the residences. In each house, we have collected the names, phone numbers and details about the professions and occupations of the residents,” Gowda said.