BJP ministers lead "Save Bengaluru" walk to counter CM Siddaramaiah

With elections to the Karnataka Assembly just a couple of months away, the BJP on Friday launched a "Save Bengaluru" walk, with senior leaders planning to cover two Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru each day.

The party is attempting to counter Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's influence in Bengaluru. The CM has been on a whirlwind tour of the city, opening roads and flyovers, almost every day, or laying foundation stones for new projects. He has been highlighting how his government has generously contributed funds for projects in Bengaluru including for roads, and Namma Metro, and strengthened public transport system by adding new buses.

With a view to take the sail away from the Congress wind, the BJP has started walk or padyatra targeting each of the Assembly constituencies. On Friday, the yatra started from Gavigangadhareshwara temple in Basavanagudi constituency in the morning and ended at NR colony. Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, DV Sadananda Gowda and Prakash Javadekar, and former State Ministers R Ashoka and Aravind Limbavali led the walk in which a large number of BJP workers participated.


The party will take out a similar padyatra at Shantinagar constituency in the evening, where the local MLA N.A.Haris has been in the news for wrong reasons with his son involved in a case of brutal attack in a city pub.

Of the 28 Assembly seats in Bengaluru, the Congress holds 13 seats, BJP 12 seats and JD (S) three seats, and the two major political parties are pulling out all stops to increase their tally in the forthcoming elections.

BJP joint spokesperson S Prakash said the party will step up its campaign against the Congress, and raise questions about the large scale misuse of funds in the name of development of Bengaluru. "We will take out the padyatra for the next two weeks (up to March 15), and raise questions about the failure of governance, misuse of power and highlight the infrastructure issues people have to deal with in everyday life because the government failed to address them."