PM on 'journey to build a new Karnataka'

BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday embarked on a visit to Karnataka at the end of the BJP's 90-day rally, called "journey to build a new Karnataka", across the poll-bound state. Modi is expected to address a BJP rally at Palace Grounds here. "Thousands of party cadres from across the state will participate in the event," a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said. Named "Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivartana Yatra" (journey to build a new Karnataka), the rally across 224 assembly constituencies of the state was flagged off on November 2 by BJP President Amit Shah. Thousands of youth and IT professionals from the city are expected to attend the event at the sprawling venue at the city centre. The party's state unit had opened an online registry and used social media to personally invite the youth, techies, educated class and prominent citizens to the venue, assuring them of seating arrangements. Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal, who are in-charge of the BJP poll campaign in Karnataka, Ananth Kumar, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Ananthkumar Hegde, who hail from the state, are also expected to take part in the event. The city has been turned into a fortress with heightened security for Modi's visit. At least 1,000 policemen have been deployed around the venue, with another 1,200 traffic police working to manage the traffic, city Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar said. The rally, held with a view of bringing the BJP back to power in the state on the plank of transforming Karnataka through development, was led by its state unit president and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. Legislative assembly elections in the southern state are due in April-May. The BJP came to power on its own for the first time in 2008 but lost to the Congress after five years in the May 2013 assembly election.