Congress likely to repeat its Gujarat strategy of soft Hindutva in poll-bound Karnataka

The Congress may continue its Gujarat strategy of 'soft Hindutva' in the upcoming elections in Karnataka.

Images of a temple-hopping and 'janeu dhari' Rahul Gandhi campaigning in Gujarat were relayed by media clearly showing that the Congress president had reversed the party's decades-old policy of appeasing Muslims.

After restricting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to less than 100 seats in Gujarat, a resurgent Congress feels that its embracing of 'soft Hindutva' foiled the saffron party's age-old tactics of appeasing Hindus in the western coastal state.

The grand old party of India will finalise a strategy for Karnataka with Rahul meeting party top guns in Delhi on January 13.

According to Congress' Karnataka general secretary-in-charge KC Venugopal, Rahul will hit the campaign trail after January 20 and could cover Mysore, Belgaum and Bellary in the first leg.

Like his grandmother and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rahul is expected to visit Sringeri Sharada Peetha, in Chikkamagaluru constituency, which she won in 1978. She won the by-election despite the blot of Emergency with the Congress coining the slogan Ek sherni sau langur, chikmaglur bhai chikmaglur (one lioness and hundred monkeys, this is how is Chikmaglur)".

Sensing that the BJP could again slam Rahul for 'temple hopping', senior Congress leader and the party's Jharkhand-in-charge RPN Singh asked why does the BJP object if someone visits a temple to seek blessings. "Hindus have been offering prayers at temples much before the BJP was even founded," he told India Today.

Gujarat deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had criticised Rahul when the Gandhi scion had visited more than 20 temples during the hustings saying "such gimmicks won't work".

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar slammed the Congress for "polarising" the electorate of Karnataka. "The Congress is polarising people in Karnataka because it has been losing support. The party is trying to divide castes, religions, people and farmers. The Congress follows the 'divide and rule' policy, but the BJP believes in unity and prosperity and in sabka saath sabka vikas."

Sounding upbeat about the April-May Assembly elections, Javadekar said, "The Siddaramaiah government and the Congress' game of 'divide and rule' will fail in the end, and the BJP will win."

In Mysore, the Congress president will address a massive youth rally keeping in mind the city's proximity to India's Silicon Valley, Bengaluru.

In Belgaum, where Mahatma Gandhi gave his presidential speech at the opening session of the Congress conference on December 20, 1924, Rahul will address a women's conference.

In Bellary, which has the highest population of Scheduled Tribes in the state, Rahul will address a gathering of tribals. Bellary is also significant for the 1999 electoral battle between former Congress president Sonai Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who lost by a narrow margin. The BJP had fielded Swaraj by portraying her as an ideal Indian woman fighting a 'foreigner' Sonia.

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