NDTV Battleground: Modi factor vs Congress assurance – What Karnataka wants

Bangalore:

With its 28 Lok Sabha seats, huge contribution to the country’s GDP and being home to the IT capital of India, Karnataka will be the top aspiration of all parties in the upcoming elections based on these factors alone. But what makes the state even more important is that the BJP sees it as the gateway to South India and hopes to make inroads in the region on the strength of its consistently good performance in Karnataka, while the Congress hopes To drive the BJP out of the region by eating into its position. Its seats in the state itself.

On NDTV’s special show ‘Battlefield’ on Friday, a panel of experts discussed key issues for the people of Karnataka and its capital Bengaluru, and whether the Modi factor will play a bigger role in the Lok Sabha elections or the Congress guarantee . Contributed to the party’s sweep across the state in last year’s assembly elections.

The BJP won 25 constituencies in Karnataka in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the most seats among any party in the state every time since the 2004 general elections. Another interesting statistic revealed by the CSDS survey is that while a third of voters who voted for the BJP in other states in 2014 and 2019 said they did so because of Narendra Modi, The proportion in Nataka is close to 55%.

Psychologist and educationist Sandeep Shastri, one of the panelists on the show hosted by NDTV Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Pugalia, said: “Out of 130 seats in the south, the NDA won 30 in 2019… in Karnataka Voters went to the polls and things were different in the Lok Sabha and Lok Sabha elections… In a way, the Modi factor was the key to the BJP campaign. What they are doing is bringing together caste and class. The big picture of their politics Partly caste-based, but class-inclusive”.

Shastri said the BJP candidate would attract people and said they would not vote for an individual but would actually give another seat to Prime Minister Modi. At the same time, he said the party would also focus on caste and class issues at the local level.

“Congress, on the other hand, is focused on local issues. So this election will be a battle between the national narrative and the local narrative,” he added.

Senior journalist and author Sugata Srinivasaraju said: “I look at the 2024 elections from the perspective of whether the BJP will transcend Karnataka and make a mark in other states, Especially the elections in the South… and the Congress people had a lot of hope in the South. So in terms of those two factors, the South was important to both parties.”

“The Congress (Karnataka) is in a pretty good position this time. Last time they had only one seat, so obviously they will do better than one seat… The narrative that the Congress is trying to build on unemployment may become very important in this election…but Congress does not have a cultural narrative and presents technocratic arguments, which may not work in such an election,” he said.

The Congress’s assurance helped the party win 135 of the state’s 234 seats in the 2023 assembly elections, and Aarin Capital Partners chairman TV Mohandas Pai said people may give Prime Minister Modi’s assurances a chance this time.

“Out of 960 million voters, 550 million are below 40 years of age, so how they vote this time will matter. In Karnataka, people have received all the assurances from (Chief Minister) Siddaramaiah and the Congress in the state. No more guarantees.” Money. Now they want assurances from Modi,” Mr Pai said.

“People want development from Prime Minister Modi. He has ensured that almost every Indian has a bank account, food on the table, a roof over his head and health insurance etc. Poverty has reduced. This can be seen, right there on the ground ,” he claimed.

“Focus on entrepreneurship”

Another panelist, Nooraine Fazal, founding managing trustee and CEO of Inventure Academy, said that even when her generation was growing up, India was full of ambition but lacking in confidence.

“Today, as an Indian, you can hold your head high no matter where you go in the world. When I first went out as a student, people would ask ‘Are there tigers where you live? How is your English? Like? Okay?’ Now, because of Bangalore, things have changed. People now ask, ‘Are you in IT? Are you from Silicon Valley, India?’” she points out.

Ms Fazal said her focus in the election will be which party is looking at fixing the education system and tapping India’s potential. “We need to embrace policies like the new education policy… We need to focus on employability, entrepreneurship and improving ease of doing business,” she said.

YourStory founder Shradha Sharma said she hails from Bihar and Bengaluru welcomed her with open arms.

“People know everything. Young India and women know everything. India is no longer apologetic. Young India is looking ahead to the next 10 years. When you see startups like Ola, Zerodha, Flipkart, they are proud of creating jobs “Their focus is to understand which government will ensure that the next decade will be India’s decade,” she said.