BENGALURU: With JD(S) influence waning and influential Congress leader

in Enforcement Directorate’s custody, the

has set its eyes on the

heartland of Old Mysuru region to widen its political base in

.

After toppling the JD(S)- Congress coalition government, the saffron party is focusing on Old Mysuru region to build on its recent electoral successes. It’s preparing the ground for an expansion of its base to include Vokkaligas.

Sources said it wants to break the JD(S) hold in the Vokkaliga heartland by engineering more defections of MLAs from Mysuru, Mandya and Hassan. The BJP is reportedly in touch with over half-a-dozen party MLAs who may join them after the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on disqualification of 17 MLAs.

With patriarch HD Deve Gowda’s political career slowly fading into the sunset and his son

’s popularity hitting a new low, the JD(S) is now seen as a party with no future, a reason why many of its MLAs are planning to jump ship.

With the cooperative movement, Congress and JD(S) retained a hold on the masses across Mandya, Ramanagara, Hassan and Mysuru, barring a few city constituencies. The BJP is now looking to curtail this influence by reorganising the boundaries of milk unions, which is largely under the control of Kumaraswamy’s elder brother HD Revanna.

The party has appointed a young Vokkaliga leader as deputy CM to take on Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar and has been openly backing independent Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambareesh. It is also trying to promote Vokkaliga leaders CP Yogeshwar and A Manju to take on Revanna, Shivakumar and his brother DK Suresh in Hassan and Ramanagara, respectively.

The JD(S) heartland is characterised by the dominant presence of the Vokkaliga community, into which the BJP has not made much inroads. Traditionally, BJP has been perceived as a North Karnataka party, with limited influence in Bengaluru and Old Mysuru. While the party has done much to change this perception in the recent Lok Sabha polls, notching up 25 seats, South Karnataka, especially Old Mysuru remain its Achilles’ heel.

A comparison of the 1998 and 2014 polls shows BJP’s victories are mostly confined to coastal and North Karnataka. Both in 2009 and 2018, when the party formed the government, it fell short of the magic mark (113), but won 6-11 seats in the Old Mysuru region.

Party sources insist it’ll make a mark with its organisational strength and presence throughout the district. BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel insists he’ll bring the coastal Hindutva model into Old Mysuru region to bolster the party.

However, Old Mysuru presents a far greater challenge. “Ever since its inception in Karnataka, BJP has made several attempts to introduce RSS culture in the Vokkaliga heartland, but it never succeeded, and never will,” said Ramesh Babu, a senior JD(S) leader.