The State BJP which is fighting a crucial battle in the upcoming Assembly polls to make Congress mukt Karnataka is pinning its hope on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s major political rally in IT city Bengaluru on Sunday to sway the voters in favour of the saffron party. Just three days after the Budget, Prime Minister Modi is addressing a rally to sound the poll bugle for the Assembly polls. State Party president BS Yeddyurappa, who visited the palace grounds to oversee the arrangements for the rally, said, “PM’s rally would give an impetus to BJP’s campaign in Karnataka”.
The PM’s rally marks the 90-day Nava Nirmana Parivarthana Yatra undertaken by Yeddyurappa who traversed all the 224 constituencies to garner votes in favour of his party to take on the Congress and Siddaramaiah’s strategies.
Besides party president Amit Shah, party's Central Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal who are in-charge of the BJP poll campaign in Karnataka, Ananth Kumar, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Ananthkumar Hegde who hail from the State, and the party's leaders from other States will participate in the rally and address the public.
Meanwhile the Karnataka High Court on Friday stayed the bandh call given by pro-Kannada organisations led by Vatal Nagaraj on the issue of Mahadayi dispute on February 4, the same day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to arrive in Bengaluru.
This, after a division Bench, led by Acting Chief Justice HG Raamesh, recalled an earlier Supreme Court ruling declaring bandhs as illegal. The court also directed the State Government to ensure that the common man and businesses were not affected in anyway
Meanwhile ahead of PM’s visit, the Karnataka BJP cow protection cell has commenced a 24-hour cow protection yagna seeking to create awareness among people on the 'multi-dimensional' importance of the cow and need to protect cattle population in India. The yagna created a row between the BJP and the Congress calling it a black magic.
“The yagna has been organised to create awareness among people about the multi-dimensional importance of the cow and the need to protect the cattle population to strengthen the rural economy at the grassroot level,” said Siddhartha Goenka, Convenor, BJP Karnataka Cow Protection Cell.
Congress MP BK Hari Prasad said, “This is not a yagna, BJP is doing black magic. BJP has lost Rajasthan and they know that they cannot win Karnataka, so they are doing this black magic and not yagna. They are making political issues out of such black magic, that’s why we tell people to be alert from such black magic moves of the BJP.”
However BJP’s Karnataka in-charge Muralidhar Rao shot back and said “ Congress supports killing of cows. If we don’t talk about cows in India, do we then talk it in Pakistan or Bangladesh? What is so anti- national in talking about cows?”
The Assembly polls for the 224 constituencies in Karnataka are expected to be held in April-May this year. Earlier this month, BJP President Amit Shah visited Karnataka to launch the saffron party’s push to wrest control of the State from the Congress. During his visit, Shah vowed to remove the Congress Government from the State.
To counter BJP’s rally, Congress President Rahul Gandhi will kick off Congress' campaign in Hospet town of Bellary district on February 10. He will tour four districts in Karnataka which includes Ballary, Koppala, Kalaburgi and Raichuru.