New Delhi: The BJP Wednesday released its list of 40 star campaigners for the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections. The list mentions Prime Minister Narendra Modi, eight Cabinet ministers including Home Minister Amit Shah, three chief ministers of BJP states, including Yogi Adityanath, as well as many senior state leaders.
However, there are notable omissions too — namely BJP MPs Tejasvi Surya and Pratap Simha, as well as former CM B.S. Yediyurappa’s son B.Y. Vijayendra, who is contesting the election from Shikaripura.
Surya is the BJP’s youth morcha president, and he and Simha are known for their firebrand Hindutva politics.
While another firebrand leader — Karnataka BJP chief Nalin Kateel — has been included in the list, party sources said the omission of Surya and Simha is a “well thought-out strategy to keep focus of the campaign on Prime Minister Modi”.
Kateel had in February created a controversy by calling on people to “drive (18th-century Mysuru ruler) Tipu Sultan’s followers to the woods”. The same month, he also said this election would not be a contest between the BJP and the Congress, but between the “ideologies of Tipu and Savarkar”.
In light of these statements, Yediyurappa and central BJP leaders had asked state leaders to focus on the Prime Minister’s popularity and development work during the campaign.
A Karnataka BJP general secretary, however, told ThePrint that Surya has “to concentrate mostly in his constituency [Bengaluru South] and the Bengaluru region”.
“That is why he was not included in the star campaigner list,” the general secretary said. “He was a star campaigner in a few other states previously, like in Tripura.”
Talking about leaving out Vijayendra, who camped across the state to consolidate youth voters before the election campaign began, the sources said “one section of the party” doesn’t want him to become another Yediyurappa in Karnataka. “That is why despite his legacy and youth appeal, he was restricted to Shikaripura alone,” said a source.
ThePrint reached Surya, Simha and Vijayendra for comment through calls and messages. A response is awaited.
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On the list
Apart from Shah, the Cabinet ministers in the star campaigner list include Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani, Mansukh Mandaviya, and Pralhad Joshi.
Other star campaigns are Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, apart from his Madhya Pradesh and Assam counterparts, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Himanta Biswa Sarma, respectively. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is also on the list.
Modi is likely to hold 20 rallies in the state, besides roadshows, with a focus on areas he did not get a chance to visit during his last seven trips, apart from those where the BJP is facing rebellions and other issues.
Shah will be in the state from 21-23 April. Adityanath will concentrate on Hubli, Belagavi and the coastal region, where the party is banking on Hindutva polarisation. BJP president J.P. Nadda, meanwhile, already started his campaign from Hubli and Haveri Wednesday, where he participated in a roadshow and the nomination of Chief Minister B.S. Bommai.
Most prominent state BJP leaders have found a place in the list, including Bommai, Yediyurappa, Kateel, general secretary C.T. Ravi, former deputy CM K.S. Eshwarappa, who has been denied a ticket, state ministers Govind Karjol, B. Sriramulu and R. Ashoka, besides Union minister Shobha Karandlaje, and MP Sadananda Gowda.
Another notable name is Prabhakar Kore, an educational baron who was a close associate of Jagadish Shettar, who defected to the Congress after being denied a ticket.
Another leader who has continuously attacked the Yediurappa and even the Bommai government — Basangouda Patil Yatnal — has found place in the list. He is a prominent Panchamasali Lingayat leader known for an aggressive Hindutva pitch.
The Panchamasalis constitute 60 per cent of the powerful Lingayat community, which has been resentful over the quota issue.
After the departure of two important Lingayat leaders — Shettar and Laxman Savadi — Yatnal’s inclusion in the campaigner list is seen to be a two-pronged strategy to consolidate Lingayat as well as Hindu votes.
The party is also banking on Karnataka filmstars like Jaggesh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP.
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