Locked in a fierce electoral battle with the BJP, the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance candidate for Bangalore-North, Krishna Byre Gowda, has resorted to rap music and flash mob dance to attract and engage the first-time voters in Bengaluru.

Karnataka will see over 30 lakh first-time voters casting their vote this Lok Sabha election and every mainstream party is trying to woo them. But Byre Gowda has a secret weapon on his side — Folk rap.

The Elements Mall in Bengaluru witnessed folk rap performance by young musicians who appealed to young voters to vote carefully for a future free of hate and violence.

The performers also took up Byre Gowda’s campaign promise “With You For You” and detailed — in rap — why he was their candidate of choice. A few lines from the song goes — “ Ishtu varshavadaru innu unemployment, sullu matugaligella agabedi silent/Agadidre kelsa bejaragi koorabeka navu prati divasa ?” (Unemployment exists even after these many years/Don’t be silent listening to falsities/Should we sit jobless every day?).

Music of liberation

Speaking after the gig, Byre Gowda said, “Rap and Hip Hop have their roots in oppressed communities and is the music of liberation.

Rap talks about social struggles and demands change. It is, therefore, appropriate that the young citizens of Bengaluru and Karnataka, who have struggled under the BJP-led authoritarian regime, have taken to folk rap to express their political needs. I will carry this voice with me to Parliament. I will make the need felt at the Centre.”

For Byre Gowda, the idea is to reach out to youth through a medium they connect with.

He said the youth today are more politically aware than before and will express their needs in many forums and ways; this gave him the confidence that his campaign will appeal to them.

“I believe the job of a Member of Parliament is to take the voice of the people, especially the youth, and make it reverberate in the halls of Parliament. I am sure that the people of Bangalore North will give me their mandate to serve them for the next five years in the Lok Sabha,” Byre Gowda said.

Expressing confidence that a secular and progressive government will be installed at the Centre , Byre Gowda said that as an MP, he would focus on jobs for Kannadigas and urban infrastructure.

 

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