Modi, Shah to lead Karnataka offensive, PM to address 6 rallies between Oct-end to Jan

Modi will address a rally in north Karnataka’s Bidar town on October 29 and will return to the state to speak again during another gathering on January 28.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah are scheduled to take a break from the hectic Gujarat campaign to launch an election drive in Congress-ruled Karnataka, which goes to polls next year.

PM Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Modi will address a rally in north Karnataka’s Bidar town on October 29 and will return to the state to speak again during another gathering on January 28.

In all, the party plans to organise about six rallies of the PM, covering all seven regions of Karnataka between October this year and January 2018.

More than 3 lakh party workers from 100 assembly constituencies are also likely to assemble at Hubli, where the PM might address another event on December 21.

BJP president Amit Shah will also be at the forefront of the party’s campaign as he launches the ‘Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivarthana Yathre’ yatra in Bengaluru on November 2. It will be marked with a bike rally from 114 assembly constituencies.

BJP’s general secretary and in-charge for Karnataka P Muralidhar Rao said during its campaign, the party aims to highlight issues such as corruption, farmers’ plight, urban mismanagement and radicalisation. “We are confident of victory,” Rao said adding, “We are working towards increasing our victory margin.”

The party also plans to deploy a team of nine workers at all the 55,000 booths during the election who will be assigned the tasks of verifying the voters list, enrolling new voters and carrying out house-to-house canvassing to promote programmes.