Adityanath, Akhilesh, Mayawati to tour poll-bound Karnataka
Lucknow, Apr. 26 (PTI): The Karnataka Assembly polls are the new battle field for political stalwarts of Uttar Pradesh including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati, who will be criss-crossing the state to turn the tide in favour of their respective parties.
Adityanath will be seen in action, addressing as many as 35 rallies and road shows, Bharatiya Janata Party sources said on Thursday.
According to the party’s plans, the chief minister’s hectic Karnataka tour will begin on May 3 and he will be there holding rallies daily between May 7 and 10, BJP spokesperson Shalabh Mani Tripathi told PTI here.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will also be touring the state to champion his party’s cause in those constituencies where the SP is in the fray.
”The SP has fielded over two dozen candidates in Karnataka. The party president will be campaigning there for our candidates. The tour details will be finalised in a day or two,” Rajendra Chowdhury, SP spokesman told PTI.
When asked specifically as to whether Akhilesh will campaign for the Congress too, Chowdhury said, “He will campaign for SP candidates only as of now.”
The Congress and the SP had contested the UP Assembly polls last year jointly, but had contested the civic body polls in the state independently.
BSP president Mayawati, whose party has entered into a pact with former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s JD(S), has already started working in the state with her rallies starting on Wednesday from Mysuru.
She will be addressing a rally in Chitradurga on Thursday and Belagavi and Bidar on May 5-6 respectively.
The BSP is contesting on 20 seats in Karnataka and is hoping to open an account there with the Janata Dal(Secular) support.
Polling will be held in a single phase on May 12 for all the 224 Assembly seats in the Congress-ruled state, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 15 for the Scheduled Tribes.
In between his rallies and road shows, Adityanath is also expected to visit temples and mutts as the BJP looks to play the Hindutva card in a state where it is anxious to regain power it lost 10 years ago.
In December last, while addressing a “Parivartan Yatra” rally in Hubbali, the UP chief minister had stoked passions by asking people to choose between Hanuman Jayanti and Tipu Jayanti – a remark aimed at questioning Congress’ two-year-old decision to commemorate the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler who hailed from the region.