Karnataka politicians finally learn language of voters

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: Campaigning in the language of the constituency is a lesson all parties have learnt.

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Keywords: eye on bangalore, language

Bangalore: Campaigning has made linguists of many politicians in Karnataka. If former Karnataka chief minister Dharam Singh taking to Urdu poetry too woo votes from the erstwhile Nizam stronghold of Jewargi in Gulbarga, Congress first-timer Mamta Hegde Nichani is also using language to fight H D Kumraswamy.

It's a lesson every party has learnt.

BJP's P C Mohan, for instance, has been campaigning in Telugu and Tamil in slums dominated by migrants. “I campaign in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi as we have Gujarati voters and Telugu voters,

His rival Dinesh Gundu Rao has put out ads to woo Gujarati voters. For JD(S) leaders who are not multi-lingual, pamphlets are conveying the same message in many languages.

In fact, politicians in Karnataka have campaigned in as many as 11 different languages, despite the aggressive Kannada factor.

For five years, the MLAs' word has been law, but now it’s clear that every aspiring MLA has to learn to voter's language.