BENGALURU: With poll clouds gathering on the state’s horizon, Karnataka is set to witness political rallies galore this monsoon season. While BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa is already on state-wide mass contact programme, the ruling Congress is determined to take a march with a slew of political rallies over the next one month.
AICC General Secretary in-charge of party affairs K C Venugopal, who had camped for five days in Bengaluru during his previous visit to put the party rank and file on poll mode, is arriving this week for a long stay in the state to oversee the proposed rallies.
The first of the mega rallies would be held at Kudalasangama on June 29 where the newly elected KPCC working president S R Patil is set to take charge formally. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC president G Parameshwara and all other senior leaders will attend the rally.
Similar mega rallies will be held at Mysuru on July 3 and Mangaluru on July 7. The date for the proposed rally at Kalaburagi would be finalised after consulting Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge, a senior KPCC functionary told Express.
Venugopal is also scheduled to participate in executive committee meetings of the district Congress units and take stock of the poll preparations, especially setting up of booth level committees. The first meeting of the district-level executive will be held in Belagavi on June 30. He would interact with party leaders from Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Ballari and Vijayapura districts on June 27 to resolve the internal differences and chair a meeting of KPCC executive committee on June 28.
BJP’s march towards slums
BJP is intensifying its campaign to reach out to the dalit community by launching ‘March towars slums’ programme in September to coincide with party ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s birth anniversary. Yeddyurappa will launch the programme from Gandhinagar constituency in Bengaluru. Party leaders will stay overnight in dalits’ homes and hold padayatras in dalit colonies as part of the programme all over the state.