Congress eager to cash in on AICC Rahul Gandhi visit in Karnataka
MYSURU: A huge Congress rally is in the offing, with party president Rahul Gandhi scheduled to address people here during one of his many visits to poll-bound Karnataka. This, coupled with the fact that Mysuru is Siddaramaiah’s home turf promises to have supporters of the party flocking the venue of the mass meet.
During his two-day visit to the region on March 24-25, Rahul Gandhi will also tour Mandya and Chamarajanagar. He will first, though, visit Mangaluru and Udupi, touted as BJP strongholds.
Rahul’s visit is being treated as a prestigious event for Congress as both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah visited Mangaluru and Mysuru over the last couple of weeks. Both addressed rallies in which they hit out at Siddaramaiah terming his regime a 10% commission government.
The JD(S), headed by H D Deve Gowda, too held Kumara Parva in the Chamundeshwari constituency, and leaders of the party toured Mysuru and Mandya districts targeting both Congress and Siddaramaiah and appealed to the people to give them a chance. They would, in turn, give a “pro-poor and farmer-friendly” government, they promised.
The BJP has no particularly strong base in the old Mysuru region, and it failed to win even one seat in Mysuru, Chamrajnagar and Mandya districts in the previous Assembly election.
Siddaramaiah has assigned District Minister H C Mahadevappa the responsibility of designing the programme and making arrangements for the rally. Mahadevappa is known for efficiently organising Kannada Sahithya Sammelan, Ambedkar International Conference, Dasara and other such mega events.
The rally is to be held at Maharaja’s Ground, and is expected to draw a 1-lakh crowd. Rahul Gandhi will visit a few Assembly segments in Mysuru and Chamrajnagar, and then travel to Mandya via Malavalli during his third leg of road shows after Hyderabad-Karnataka and Mumbai-Karnataka.
7 JD(S) rebels to join Congress
The turnout at the rally may further swell as seven JD(S) rebel MLAs led by N Chaluvarayaswamy will join Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi on the occasion. Party workers are also working towards bringing all “progressive” organisations and Dalit forums to participate in the rally. Siddaramaiah is going that extra mile to win over as many Dalit leaders and families, knowing fully well that the BSP-JD(S) alliance may cut into a lot of such votes. Congress will detail SC/ST programmes it initiated and funded in the past three years on handouts and distribute them.