Karnataka Assembly Elections: Amit Shah to kick off BJP's campaign with yatra

BJP chief Amit Shah will kick off the partys campaign in Karnataka, which goes to polls early next year, by flagging off an 84-day yatra led by its chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa.

Shah will flag off the yatra on November 2 in Bengaluru in the presence of state leaders and Union ministers, sources in the party said.

The yatra is expected to cover more than 7,500 km passing through all the 224 constituencies in the state. It will conclude on January 28, with Prime Minister Narendra Modis public rally in Bengaluru, they said.

The focus of the yatra will be to highlight corruption and misgovernance during the Siddaramaiah-led congress government in the state, BJPs national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said.

Rao, who is also the incharge of partys affairs in Karnataka added that through this yatra BJP will prepare the ground for partys victory in next year elections.

The party has already announced that Yeddyurappa, currently the partys state unit president, would be its chief ministerial candidate for Karnataka.

An influential Lingayat leader, Yeddyurappa had led the saffron party to its maiden victory in the southern state in 2008, but had to resign following charges of corruption.

Yeddyurappa floated his own outfit in 2011 following his differences with the then central leadership of the party.

Though his party performed poorly in the 2013 Assembly polls, it managed to wean away a substantial chunk of the BJP votes, leading to a rout of the saffron party. But later, he returned to the BJP fold ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

The assembly elections in the state are likely to witness a three-way fight between ruling Congress, the BJP and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led JD(S).

PTI