BJP's 'Save Bengaluru' campaign will also highlight what the party calls poor law and order
With assembly elections in Karnataka just a couple of months away, the state BJP has launched its Bengaluru Rakshisi or Save Bengaluru campaign. This will involve
padyatras through all the 28 assembly constituencies in the city over the next two weeks -- with BJP representatives talking to people on the streets and to local residents. The campaign that began in south Bengaluru's Basavanagudi was attended by union ministers Ananth Kumar, Sadananda Gowda and Prakash Javadekar who is also the party in-charge for Karnataka.
In the evening, one
padyatra started from the upmarket UB city -- to make the point about what the BJP calls deteriorating law and order situation. This mall is where the son of a Congress MLA allegedly attacked another man so badly that it left him hospitalised.
BJP leader Ashok Limbavalli, who was at the UB City march, told NDTV, "Even in this place, well-to-do people are not safe. What about the others?"
In the run-up to the elections, the BJP has repeatedly pitched law and order as a key issue, claiming that 20 BJP and RSS workers have been killed during the last few years of Congress rule in the state.
The issue has also been highlighted in election rallies by BJP chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had even spoken about the "ease of doing murder" in Karnataka.
While the BJP is going all out to regain power in the only state in the south that it once ruled, the Congress is keen on retaining Karnataka, one of the few states it currently rules.
The Congress took on the BJP over its campaign to save the city. "Bengaluru was saved from five years of their (BJP) rule. Garden city became garbage city. Bangaloreans can now see the developments that are taking place," said Bengaluru Development Minister K J George.