Bengaluru(Karnataka): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Karnataka in order to pay tributes to Sri Shivakumar Swamiji at Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru on Thursday and Friday respectively. Both the leaders' visits will mark the political campaigning ahead of the state Assembly polls in 2023 being formally launched.
Quite surprisingly, no other national leader had come when Swamiji passed away on January 21, 2019, as they had just sent condolence messages. However, Rahul Gandhi will visit the Mutt ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah at 4 pm on Thursday and is likely to spend an hour.
Shah’s visit has been pre-scheduled and he will fly to Tumakuru, while Rahul’s visit was fixed later and he will travel by road. The National Congress leader will arrive in Bengaluru at 12.30 pm on Thursday and will stay at a private hotel in the city. He will then visit Siddaganga Mutt to pay his tributes to Sri Shivakumara Swamiji at 4 pm on the 115th birth anniversary.
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The Gandhi scion later will return to Bengaluru in the evening, to hold a meeting with BBMP Congress leaders in the party's new building at the back of the KPCC (Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee) office on Friday. Rahul will also address Congress leaders at the KPCC Auditorium, in Bengaluru on Saturday at 10.30 am. AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal, Randeep Singh Surjewala and KPCC president DK Gopalakrishnan will also be present.
DK Sivakumar, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, Leader of the Opposition of the Methodist Council Hariprasad, Rajya Sabha leader Mallikarjun Kharge, KPCC Campaign Committee Chairman MB Patil, KPCC Presidents, AICC Officers, and forerunners will also participate. Gandhi, will leave the KPCC office at 3.30 pm and will fly to Delhi by 5 PM on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will arrive in Karnataka on Thursday and will visit Bengaluru, Tumakuru, and Chikkaballapura. He will participate in government and BJP party programs that would launch the Nandini Ksheera Abhivruddi Bank (Milk Development Bank) and Yashashwini Scheme. Amit Shah is scheduled to arrive in Bengaluru at 10.30 PM on Thursday.
Shah is scheduled to arrive in Tumakuru at 10.55 am on Friday will be participating in the 115th birth anniversary and Guru Vandana program of late Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Mutt and take part in a two-hour-long event addressing a gathering of two lakh people. After having dinner he will head to Chikkaballapura. He will be involved in a Foundation stone laying program for the medical college building in Muddenahalli at 2 pm.
Then he will participate in the Cooperative Conference Program in Bengaluru and will attend the BJP Core Committee meeting later in the evening on Friday. He will be releasing the logo of the state government's proposed Nandini Ksheera Abhivruddi Bank and Yeshashwini Scheme at the Cooperative Conference event at Bengaluru Palace Ground.
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The Government of Karnataka had announced in its budget the development of Nandini Ksheera Abhivruddi Bank. The state government has allocated Rs 100 crore for the purpose of milk production and other activities.
