Forward of the revealing of a 108-feet-tall statue of Kempegowda, the founding father of Bengaluru metropolis, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda has reiterated his demand for set up of a Kempegowda statue on the premises of Parliament.
In a letter written to Prime Minister Modi on Sunday, the previous prime minister sought the set up of a bronze statue of Kempegowda on the Parliament premises. Gowda additionally forwarded an identical demand made by the Kempegowda Central Committee.
“I’ve forwarded the request of the Bangalore Founder Kempegowda Central Committee to the Prime Minister with my private suggestion,” Deve Gowda mentioned in a social media put up Sunday.
“Might I kindly urge you to provide your particular person consideration to this request, as you’re conscious Kempegowda established the town of Bengaluru within the sixteenth century, and the seeds that he sowed centuries in the past flowered right into a globally famend metropolis that we’re all pleased with,” Deve Gowda mentioned within the letter.
“Kempegowda who personifies Bangalore may very effectively be seen as a logo of India’s technological leap. There is no such thing as a different metropolis in India that homes as many private and non-private establishments of scientific and technological excellence,” the previous PM said.
Deve Gowda’s letter to the PM comes forward of the scheduled unveiling of a 108-feet statue of Kempegowda on the Kempegowda Worldwide Airport in Bengaluru by Modi on November 11.
The transfer by the BJP authorities in Karnataka to unveil the enormous statue of the founding father of Bengaluru is seen as a political transfer to win the assist of the dominant Vokkaliga neighborhood in south Karnataka which is supporting Deve Gowda and the JD(S).
The BJP authorities has invited Deve Gowda additionally to the statue-installation ceremony.
A number of BJP leaders from the Vokkaliga neighborhood are vying for credit score for the bronze statue, constructed at a value of practically Rs 100 crore, a venture cleared by the previous B S Yediyurappa authorities.
Karnataka Minister for Greater Training Dr C N Ashwathanarayan has been the top of the Kempegowda Central Committee. Senior ministers akin to R Ashok, Dr Okay Sudhakar, S T Somashekhar and Narayana Gowda have additionally been on the forefront of the statue set up efforts in the previous couple of weeks.
The BJP is hoping to make inroads into the Vokkaliga votebase of the JD(S) in south Karnataka via the set up of the statue. The BJP has by no means achieved effectively within the Meeting polls in south Karnataka, a significant factor within the social gathering by no means profitable a transparent majority within the state.
The BJP has needed to depend on defection of MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) to kind governments in 2008 and 2019 when it dominated the state with out getting into a coalition.
There may be nonetheless numerous scepticism on how a lot success the initiative will yield within the state polls in 2023 given the truth that the BJP lacks a powerful base within the Vokkaliga-dominated territories in south Karnataka.
“The Kempegowda statue initiative just isn’t more likely to yield electoral dividends for the BJP however it may increase the picture of BJP’s Vokkaliga leaders. Within the Vokkaliga neighborhood, Kempegowda just isn’t a giant icon as he lived a number of centuries in the past,” sources within the authorities mentioned.
A large chunk of the Vokkaliga neighborhood considers Deve Gowda because the patriarch of the neighborhood and the political assist of the neighborhood to the JD(S) flows from this sentiment to a big extent.