The Impact of PM Modi’s Roadshows In Bengaluru

The Karnataka BJP had put all its eggs into one basket and banked heavily on the central leadership. To be precise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The roadshows by the Prime Minister covered 30 kilometres in Bengaluru and covered 22 constituencies in the city. The rallies were important for the party and Bengaluru has been traditionally been considered to be a BJP stronghold. However the city's voter turnout has been known to be low. This year the turnout was at 56 per cent which is 17 per cent lower than the state average of 73 per cent.

The PM's rallies covered the Bommanahalli and C V Rama constituencies. However both these constituencies recorded low turnouts. 47 ad 49 per cent respectively.

The roadshows by the PM also crossed Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Mahalakshmi Layout, Yeshwanthpur, Dasarahalli, Bangalore South, BTM Layout, Jayanagar, Basavanagudi, Padmanabanagar, Chickpet, Chamarajpet, Gandhinagar, Rajajinagar, Vijaynagar, Govindaraj Nagar, Malleswaram, Mahadevapura, K R Puram, Shanitnagar and Shivaji Nagar constituencies.

How much of an impact have the rallies made would be seen on May 13, when the votes are counted. However for the BJP it has been a huge boost and party leaders say that the PM had boosted the campaign.

The BJP feels that the rallies in Bengaluru would have made an impact on constituencies such as Rajaji Nagar and Basavangudi where the party was facing an uphill task.

A BJP source tells OneIndia that the rallies of the PM were intentionally kept for the last. Moreover it was focused on Bengaluru. The source said that while the BJP ended up as the single largest party in 2018, it fell short because it did not do as well as it had expected to do so in Bengaluru. This is where we wanted to make the difference and hence the PM was brought in at the last, the source added.