Amit Shah to assess BJP poll preparations, hold roadshow tomorrow in Karnataka

Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah is arriving here on Friday on a two-day visit to take stock of the party’s preparations for the May 10 Assembly elections in Karnataka, his first visit to the state after announcement of poll schedule.

He is slated to hold a roadshow in Devanahalli town, the birthplace of 18th century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan, in Bengaluru Rural district on Friday afternoon.

Shah would hold a meeting here with senior party functionaries regarding poll preparations in the evening, BJP sources said.

On Saturday, he is scheduled to attend an event organised by a private news channel before flying back to Delhi.

In Devanahalli, the BJP leader will campaign for the party’s Pilla Munishamappa, who is pitted against the sitting JD(S) MLA L N Narayanaswamy and Congress candidate K H Muniyappa, a former Union minister and seven-time MP.

Muniyappa, who was defeated in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is foraying into the Assembly polls for the first time.

In the 2018 Assembly election, the fight was mainly between Narayanswamy (86,966 votes) and Venkataswamy (69,956) of the Congress. The BJP candidate K Nagesh was a distant third with 9,820 votes.

The state will go to the polls on May 10 and the results will be out on May 13.