The BJP has yet again sounded its seriousness in making inroads into the Vokkaliga heartland of Mandya with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath making his maiden appearance in Karnataka to campaign for the 2023 Assembly elections with a road show and a public rally in Mandya on April 26.
Mandya is reckoned to be the bastion of the Janata Dal (Secular), which won all the 7 Assembly seats in the 2018 polls, though the Congress has a formidable presence as well with the BJP a distant third. For the BJP to secure a comfortable majority in Karnataka, the party has to improve its tally in the Mysuru-Mandya-Chamarajanagar belt where it won only 4 out of 22 seats in 2018, besides wresting the K.R. Pet from JD(S) in a by-election in 2019.
That the BJP is serious about improving its tally in the region was evident when Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a diary at Gejjalagere in Mandya followed by addressing a public rally where he tore into the Congress and the JD(S) while seeking support for the ‘double engine’ government at the Centre and in the State.
