Bangalore, May 6: Around 4:30 p.m., as the crowd began assembling at the Tumkur University grou-nds, 70 km from Bangalore, the loud speaker blared BJP campaign songs set to popular Kannada film tunes. At regular intervals, a party official announced that the “hat-trick hero” was in town after a gap of 15 years.

The “hat-trick hero”—Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who arrived in a helicopter—was taking a breather at the local inspection bungalow after his morning campaign sessions at the BJP strongholds of Kushalnagar and Virajpet in the Kodagu district, nearly 300 km away.

With the small crowd still gathering, Modi took centrestage to campaign for four time BJP MLA S. Shivanna from a town that is the seat of the 107-year-old Shivakumar Swami, a religious head of the Lingayat community that is strongly backing the BJP in the Karnataka elections.

“Elections are happening in Karnataka and Congress leaders are talking about Gujarat. They say they will not allow Karnataka to become another Gujarat. Congress cannot make Karnataka another Gujarat—only the BJP and Yeddyurappa can,” Modi began.

Outlining his government’s achievements in Gujarat, Modi told a crowd that sat largely unexcited through his speech, that he had provided three-phase power supply for 24 hours across Gujarat—”something the Congress has not achieved even in Delhi”.

“When they say they don’t want the Gujarat model, they have an hidden agenda. We are following the path set by Sardar Vallabhai Patel. They don’t want to follow that path. Congress has become the property of one family,” Modi said.

On the issue of terrorism, the Gujarat Chief Minister said, “I have come here to awaken the youth of Karnataka. Do you know what danger Karnataka is being dragged into? Why is it that every time there is a terrorist incident around India, Manmohan Singh’s police come to Karnataka? You may have a bungalow, a car but if your children cannot come back home safely because of terrorists what is the use of peace,” he said.

“In Gujarat, I speak in the language of terrorists. You need to have zero tolerance. The Congress does not have the strength for that. Yeddyurappa has the strength,” Modi said.

An indirect attack on the JDS and “selfish family members who prevented the BJP from ruling the state” got a sizable cheer.

The impassioned speech however received the biggest approval when Modi signed off with the BJP campaign signature-a reference to party symbols-”Goddess Lakshmi does not come to you on a bicycle, an elephant nor is she stopped by any hand, she comes floating on the lotus”.

Two hours later, Modi made his first stop in Bangalore for this campaign. Before a much larger crowd in the Byatarayanapura constituency on the city’s outskirts, he repeated his message.