The BJP had won 25 of the state’s 28 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Bangalore:
With its 28 Lok Sabha seats, huge contribution to the country’s GDP and being home to the IT capital of India, success in Karnataka based on these factors alone would be high on any party’s wish list for the upcoming elections. But what makes the state even more important is because the BJP sees it as the gateway to South India and hopes to make inroads into the region on the back of its continued good performance in Karnataka, while the Congress is trying to push the party out by the region to eat. are seats in the state itself.
During WhatsNew2Day’s special show ‘Battleground’ on Friday, a panel of experts discussed the key issues facing the people of Karnataka and its capital, Bengaluru, and whether the Modi Factor will play a bigger role in the Lok Sabha elections or the guarantees of Congress, which helped the party sweep the state in the Assembly polls last year.
The BJP had won 25 constituencies in Karnataka in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and has consistently won the most seats of any party in the state since the 2004 general elections. Another interesting statistic revealed by CSDS surveys is that while one in three voters who cast their votes for the BJP in other states in 2014 and 2019 said they did so because of Narendra Modi, the share for Karnataka is almost 55 percent amounted to.
Psephologist and educationist Sandeep Shastri – one of the panellists of the show, hosted by WhatsNew2Day editor-in-chief Sanjay Pugalia – said: “Of the 130 seats in the South, the NDA won 30 in 2019… Voters in Karnataka cast their votes. different in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections… At some level, the Modi factor is key to the BJP’s campaign. What they do is bring together caste and class. Much of their politics is caste-based, but inclusive of class. .”
Mr Shastri said that the BJP candidates will appeal to the people and say that they are not voting for individuals but are actually giving a seat to Prime Minister Modi. At the same time, he said, the party will also focus on caste and class at the local level.
“The Congress, on the other hand, focuses on local issues. So this election will be a battle between the national narrative and the local narrative,” he added.
Senior journalist and author Sugata Srinivasaraju said, “I am looking at the 2024 elections, especially the south, from the point of view of whether the BJP will go beyond Karnataka and make a mark in other states… and also in the Congress. has pinned a lot of hope on the south. So because of these two factors, the south will be important for both sides.”
“This time, the Congress (in Karnataka) is in a reasonably better position. They had one seat last time, so it’s clear they’ll do better than one seat… The narrative that Congress is trying to build on unemployment could become very important in this election… But Congress has no cultural narrative and does not use a technocratic argument, and that may not work in a general election like this,” he said.
On Congress’s assurances, which helped the party win 135 of the state’s 234 seats in the 2023 assembly elections, TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Aarin Capital Partners, said people are likely to give PM Modi’s assurance a chance this time will give.
“Of the 96 crore voters, 55 crore are below the age of 40, so how they vote this time will be important. In Karnataka, people have been given all assurances by (Chief Minister) Siddaramaiah and the Congress. money. Now they want Modi’s guarantee,” Pai said.
“People want Prime Minister Modi’s development. He has ensured that almost every Indian has a bank account, food on the table, a roof over his head and health insurance and so on. The hardships are less. And this can be seen, it is the ground there,” he claimed.
‘Focus on entrepreneurship’
Another panellist, Nooraine Fazal, Founding Managing Trustee and CEO of Inventure Academy, said India was ambitious even when her generation was growing up, but the country lacked confidence.
“Nowadays, as an Indian, wherever you go in the world, you can go with your head held high. When I first went out as a student, people would ask, ‘Do you have tigers where you live, how is your English?’ Good?’ Now that has changed thanks to Bengaluru. People now ask, ‘do you work in IT, are you from the Silicon Valley of India?'” she noted.
Ms Fazal said her focus in the elections will be on which party wants to improve the education system and unleash India’s potential. “We need to embrace policies like the new education policy… We need to focus on employability, entrepreneurship and increasing ease of doing business,” she said.
YourStory founder Shradha Sharma said she is from Bihar and Bengaluru had welcomed her with open arms.
“The people know everything. Young India and women know everything. India is no longer apologetic. Young India is looking at the next decade. When you see startups like Ola, Zerodha, Flipkart and others, they take pride in creating employment Their focus is on understanding which government will ensure that the next decade is India’s decade,” she said.