WALKING THE EXTRA MILE

Call it the yatra effect. The Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra had just about exited Karnataka this month when the ruling BJP set out on its Jana Sankalpa' rallies, with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and party stalwart B.S.Yediyurappa (BSY) leading the charge in a counter-offensive to prepare the ground for state elections in May 2023.

- Ajay Sukumaran

Anti-incumbency is a major worry, but the party is banking on a string of initiatives to woo the Dalit and Vokkaliga communities while trying to shrug off the opposition's corruption allegations with a tit-for-tat approach.

At Bommai’s rallies in the third week of October in towns across the northern districts of Bidar, Gulbarga, Yadir and Raichur, the combative tone was evident when the CM raising the issue of recent arrests of 38 assistant high school teachers in the ongoing recruitment scam investigation. The Bommai government, which has been facing flak over irregularities in the recruitment of police sub-inspectors, is looking to divert attention to the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam that had taken place under Congress watch. The CM also promised a probe into the decade-old Anwar Manippady committee report that had accused several Congress leaders of encroaching on Wakf properties allegedly worth some Rs 2 lakh crore.