At 8 times in 4 months, PM Modi’s Karnataka visits set to be highest in a year
The longest gap between two visits was of 29 months, between January 2020 and June 2022, and the Opposition has accused the PM of ignoring the state when it was in distress
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This year too Modi will be the BJP’s star campaigner and his visits the double digit mark. (PTI) When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Karnataka on April 9 to launch an event to mark the golden jubilee of Project Tiger, it will be his eighth visit to the state in four months, the highest ever in a single year since he became prime minister in 2014.
Since January 2015, Modi has visited the state a total of 32 times. Almost 25 per cent of these visits have been in the election year as the ruling BJP finds itself on shaky grounds over its prospects of returning to power.
Data accessed from Prime Minister of India’s website shows that the second-most Karnataka visits Modi made in a year were in 2018, also an election year. Six of the seven visits that year happened ahead of the elections. Five of these visits were “non-official”, meaning that he visited the state either after the model code of conduct took effect or to attend a BJP event. Modi participated in a campaign blitzkrieg just ahead of the polls as he came calling four times between May 1 and 9.
This year too Modi will be the BJP’s star campaigner and his visits are expected to cross the double digit mark. The prime minister’s visits this year have been related to the inaugurations of a slew of projects many of which the Congress alleges are incomplete. His first visit in 2023 was on January 12, when he inaugurated the 26th National Youth Festival at Hubballi. The second came a week later, on January 19, to Yadgir and Kalaburagi to distribute title deeds for the Banjara community. The third visit was on February 6 for the inauguration of the Indian Energy Week at Bengaluru and the fourth on February 13 for the launch of Aero India 2023. The fifth visit was on February 27 to inaugurate Shivamogga Airport while the sixth was on March 12 for the inauguration of the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway.
During his most recent and the seventh visit, on March 25, Modi inaugurated the Whitefield Metro Line and participated in a public gathering at Davangere, apart from other events.
Data also shows that Modi did not visit the state even once during the two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, between March 2020 and June 2021. The longest gap between his two visits to Karnataka was of 29 months, between January 2, 2020 and June 20, 2022, according to the PMO portal.
The prime minister’s frequent visits to the poll-bound state have triggered a row, with the Opposition Congress alleging that crores of rupees of taxpayer money were being wasted.
Congress MP D K Suresh said that BJP leaders were looting crores of rupees during rallies attended by the prime minister. “The Kempegowda statue inaugurated near Bengaluru International Airport cost Rs 59 crore, whereas the expense for the inauguration programme was Rs 30 crore,” he alleged.
He further alleged that the government had claimed that Rs 12 crore were spent for erecting pandals for a Modi event and that Rs 1 cr was billed as water expenses.
The social media wings of the Congress and the JD(S) have used memes and short videos to criticise these visits while accusing Modi of ignoring the state when it was under distress during the devastating floods of 2019 and 2020 and the Covid pandemic.
The PM visits to Karnataka so far
Visits in 2023: 7 (Mar 25, Mar 12, Feb 27, Feb 12, Feb 6, Jan 19, Jan 12)
2022: 3 (Nov 11, Sep 2, Jun 20)
2021: 0
2020: 1 (Jan 2)
2019: 6 (Sep 6, Apr 18 non-official (NO), Apr 13 NO, Apr 12 NO, Apr 9 NO, Mar 6)
2018: 7 (Nov 12, May 8,9 NO, May 5,6 NO, May 3 NO, May 1 NO, Feb 27 NO, Feb 19)
2017: 2 (Oct 29, Jan 8)
2016: 3 (Nov 13, May 29, Jan 2)
2015: 3 (Oct 6, Apr 2, Feb 18)
Total visit 32
(Source: https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/pm-visits/?visittype=domestic_visit)
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