Bengaluru sources stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi will campaign in Karnataka on Saturday for their candidates contesting in the Lok Sabha elections. Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman S. Shanataram said "Modi will return to Karnataka to address BJP rallies in Mangaluru and Bengaluru”.
Reportedly Gandhi will address three rallies in Kolar, Chitradurga and K.R. Nagar in the Mandya parliamentary constituency. Recently Modi addressed two rallies at Chitradurga and Mysuru on Wednesday and of the 28 seats across the state, 14 in the central and southern regions will vote on April 18 and the remaining 14 in the coastal and northern regions on April 23. Vote count in all the seats is on May 23.
Moreover of the seven rallies the BJP has scheduled for Modi, the last two will be at Belagavi and Chikkodi. Hence the BJP is contesting in 27 parliamentary seats and supporting multi-lingual south India actor Sumalatha Ambareesh, an Independent, from Mandya against Nikhil Gowda of the JD-S and the Congress and JD-S have fielded joint candidates in all the 28 seats in the ratio of 21:7 under a seat sharing arrangement. Apparently as Modi's two rallies in the state coincide with the first phase of polling on April 18, BJP's rivals protested that his address at the twin rallies if held during the day may influence the electorate voting in 14 seats across the central and southern regions.
