Budget 2024: Placating Andhra May Cost BJP In Karnataka

The Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit has been under fire for some time now, and today's budget by Union Minister for Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman, comes as no relief for them, either.

This budget presented the perfect opportunity to give the BJP a shot in the arm, but it was not to be.

This Swarajya article, published a few days ago, argues how the BJP has always been hesitant to take a stance on the language debate too. While it 'evaluates' the pros and cons of the reservations for Kannadigas, there is no hiding the fact that it was the B S Yediyurappa government that pushed for it in the first place.

To add to it, there's visible discontent with the BJP parliamentarians from Karnataka.

To take one case, there has been a popular demand to declare Bengaluru as a metro city.

Despite Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya bringing this to the notice of the relevant minister, there is little progress on the front. Bengaluru has been loyal to the BJP at a municipal, state and national level by continuously voting for the party for years now.

The minimal mention of Karnataka and Bengaluru in the budget once again highlights the charge that BJP ignores the regions most loyal towards it.

This also includes coastal Karnataka. Despite being a hub for Hindutva politics and a range of leaders emerging from the region, Karavali Karnataka has barely received any major infrastructure projects or policy push from both the state and the central government.

Karnataka has sent quality MPs to parliament this time. It includes three former chief ministers — Jagadish Shettar, Basavaraj Bommai and H D Kumaraswamy — the last one being from a coalition party.

North Karnataka, for instance, has some of the poorest districts in the southern part of the country. No focus has been laid on that region — another reason why the Congress was able to woo the voters with the freebies in the second phase of the general elections in Karnataka.

In this context, there is precious little to check the creeping sense of injustice that is getting registered in the minds of Kannadigas.

There are talks of how regional parties with barely 10-12 Lok Sabha seats have better bargaining power because their support to a coalition will make any government bend to their bargains.

If such is the case, the irresponsible fiscal policies of the Congress combined with an indifferent BJP will create a vacuum in the state soon.

With senior leaders sidelined or retired, and parliamentarians unable to lobby for the state, things may turn worse for the BJP if a serious review of its approach to Karnataka is not conducted soon.