JD(S) plans bigger roadshow on March 26 to stem BJP clout after Modi's show last week

The JD(S) is planning a massive roadshow on March 26 to demonstrate its clout in the old Mysuru region exactly two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2-km roadshow in Mandya. Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda,89, is expected to helm the roadshow.

The party has planned a 90-km roadshow from Ramanagara to Mysuru in the Vokkaliga dominated region. The second largest community considers Gowda as their tallest political leader.

The decision by the regional party, which led the coalition regime with the Congress in Karnataka in 2018-19, follows the ruling BJP’s heightened efforts to penetrate the region and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar’s campaign to stem the JD(S) influence.


"We are planning to mobilise about one million workers and show to the BJP and Congress where we stand with voters,” former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy told ET. “This is the JD(S) fortress, and the BJP and Congress are dreaming of breaking into it," he said, referring to the Ramanagara, Mandya and Mysuru belt. "The two parties will see the real pulse of the people."

On Gowda’s participation, the JD-S leader said the family has asked for doctor’s opinion and will go by that.

The regional party has taken serious note of the BJP’s campaign after PM Modi got a rousing welcome in Mandya and showered him with flowers while he held a roadshow. The PM addressed a public meeting, too. His meeting came three months after Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a rally in the district as the BJP seeks to multiply its vote share in the region. Mandya’s actor-turned-MP Sumalatha (independent) pledged her support to Modi days before his visit.

On Tuesday, Shivakumar confirmed that there were plans to field his younger brother DK Suresh against JD(S) youth wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Ramanagara, held currently by his mother Anita Kumaraswamy. Suresh is the lone Congress Lok Sabha member from Karnataka.

Since its founding in the late 1990s, the JD(S) has built its identity around Vokkaligas. The JD(S) party’s clout in Mandya district became evident after it won all seven seats in the 2018 assembly polls. Vokkaligas have a huge presence in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Tumakuru, Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan and Chamarajanagar districts.

Karnataka is due for assembly polls by May, and the BJP has distanced itself from the JD(S) and Shah even warned its leaders against any internal understandings with it. The BJP’s tough stand against the party it had shared power with, in the past, comes after Kumaraswamy openly aligned with Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who is forging an alliance of non-BJP, non-Congress political parties to throw a challenge to Modi in the Lok Sabha elections.