As preparations for the 2023 Karnataka elections begin, national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), JP Nadda, reached the state on Thursday, January 5. Nadda arrived in Tumakuru and attended a meeting with Shakti Kendra chiefs. “After COVID and the Ukraine war, many powerful countries are failing. Inflation and unemployment rose in China, and the USA and Europe are facing unstable economies. But under the leadership of PM Modi, we have a sound and stable economy. We have surpassed the UK and become the fifth largest economy in the world,” the BJP chief claimed while addressing the meeting. Shakti Kendra Pramukh Sammelan is a programme by the BJP which aims at boosting the activism of booth level party workers.
In the run-up to the elections, Nadda also attacked the Congress and said, "(The party) is synonymous with corruption, commission and casteism. While we have a mission to serve, they have a mission to receive commissions." He also alleged that the Congress has always divided people based on caste and religion to indulge in vote bank politics and nepotism. “However, casteism and dynastic politics have no place in the politics of the BJP now,” he claimed, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given rise to a ‘report card government.’ “When we campaign for the elections, all our politicians will proudly show their report cards to you, which will clearly show everything that we had said and accomplished,” he said.
JP Nadda is on a two-day visit to Karnataka, during which he will visit Tumakuru, Chitradurga, and Davangere districts. While he is there, he will meet with party leaders and workers and visit some well known maths like the Siddaganga Math, which is a prominent Veerashaiva Lingayat math. In a statement, BJP state vice president Nirmal Kumar Surana also said that Nadda will be visiting Madara Chennaiah and Sirigere Taralabalu math while he is in Chitradurga, where he will participate in the party's SC/ST and OBC karyakartas meeting.