The NDA's election campaign in the South is set to gain pace as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address his second public meeting in Karnataka on Monday. Modi will be in Shivamogga, the home district of BJP stalwart Yediyurappa.
The Prime Minister was in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday where he campaigned for NDA candidates in the state while sharing the stage with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu after a gap of five years. JanaSena Party chief K Pawan Kalyan too attended the public meeting at Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh.
In Shivamogga, Modi will campaign for Yediyurappa's elder son B Y Raghavendra, the BJP's candidate for the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency. This is his second election meeting in Karnataka, the first being at Kalaburagi, the home turf of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
The BJP is expecting a turnout of 2.5 lakh people at the Allama Prabhu ground (Freedom Park) where the meeting is being held. Interestingly, party rebel and former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa had declared that he would contest as an independent candidate in Shivamogga.
Ahead of the meeting, BJP state chief B Y Vijayendra, B S Yediyurappa's second son, visited Allama Prabhu ground along with senior party functionaries to oversee the preparations and gave necessary directions to ensure that the meeting goes well.
In 2019 elections, the BJP won 25 out of 28 seats in 2019, while the Congress and the JD(S) had to settle for just one seat each. Party leaders have expressed confidence that the BJP would win all 28 seats in Karnataka this time.
Later in the evening, the Prime Minister will head to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu where he will hold a roadshow from Mettupalayam Road to RS Puram. Interestingly, the Madras High Court had granted permission for the roadshow after the state denied it citing security concerns. The BJP state unit welcomed the order, saying the HC has given "justice" and said the roadshow will be a 'historic one."
He will stay at the Circuit House in the city and leave for Kerala's Palakkad on an Indian Air Force chopper from Coimbatore airport on Tuesday morning.
The Prime Minister had been focusing on the South actively, where the BJP still hasn't found a stronghold yet. The party is hopeful of making significant gains in Tamil Nadu, where party chief K Annamalai is carrying out aggressive campaigning. Modi was in Tamil Nadu last week where he actively campaigned against the ruling DMK government. He had visited Kerala too, where the party aims to woo the minority Christian community.
The BJP realises that without a substantial share of seats from the South, the NDA will not be able to cross its goal of 400 seats this election despite winning much of the Hindi heartland.
In 2019, the NDA secured only 29 seats to its name from the 132 total seats in the five southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Telangana, as well as the Union Territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep.