BD NarayankarBengaluru, Aug. 23 -- The BJP's proposed 170-km padayatra from Jagalur to Ballari, ostensibly to demand the resignation of Karnataka Minister B Nagendra, is increasingly taking shape as a larger political exercise to reclaim a Scheduled Tribe belt the party virtually lost in the 2023 Assembly elections.
The proposed 20-day march through around 11 reserved constituencies would take the BJP's Nagendra campaign deep into a region where the Congress established a formidable hold in the last Assembly polls.
The political arithmetic explains the BJP's interest in the route. In 2023, the Congress swept the major ST constituencies along the Jagalur-Ballari belt, including Jagalur, Kudligi, Molakalmuru, Challakere, Kampli, Siruguppa, ...