Bangalore: Voting for the assembly elections is to be held in Karnataka on the 10th of this month. In addition to the ruling BJP and the Congress, the contest is triangular here with the presence of the JDS. While BJP has promised Uniform Civil Code (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) as well as free gas cylinders in its election manifesto, Congress has also announced several populist schemes. Along with this, Congress is continuously using the name of former PM Indira Gandhi in this election campaign.
In fact, Chikkamagaluru in the state was considered an impregnable fort of the Congress. The seat was held by the Congress till BJP's CT Ravi won it. Congress is trying hard to get this seat back and in this effort, Congress is associating Indira Gandhi's name with Chikkamagaluru so that people feel an emotional attachment and vote in favor of Congress. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have also consistently invoked the legacy of their grandmother and former PM Indira Gandhi, who made a political comeback in 1978 by winning the Lok Sabha bypoll in Chikkamagaluru, during election rallies and outreach campaigns. Earlier, the Emergency that lasted from 1975 to 1977 had made Indira Gandhi's image that of a dictator.
Subsequently, Indira Gandhi visited the Sharada Peeth to seek the blessings of the saints before winning the 1978 Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha by-election. With this move, Indira Gandhi was successful in reviving the Congress and becoming PM for the second time (1980). In Karnataka too, Indira Gandhi not only revived herself politically, but also revived the Congress party. The Gandhi family has had an emotional bond with Chikkamagaluru, but the Chikkamagaluru Assembly and Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha constituencies have passed from the Congress to the BJP over time. BJP's CT Ravi has been winning this assembly seat since 2004, while BJP's Shobha Karandlaje has been winning the Lok Sabha seat since 2014.
The Congress has tried to create an emotional connect with the people of Chikkamagaluru district by invoking Indira Gandhi's association with the region. When Priyanka Gandhi, the national general secretary of the Congress party, visited Chikkamagaluru in April, she referred to her grandmother Indira Gandhi's victory in the bypoll in Chikkamagaluru and urged people to vote for the party in the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections.
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