Rahul Gandhi has postponed his Karnataka tour till April 16.
Bengaluru:
Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Kolar district of Karnataka to campaign for the Congress has been postponed for the second time. State Congress chief DK Shivakumar told reporters that the candidates would be busy filing nominations and it was too early for them to go tomorrow.
He was rescheduled to reach the major mining district of the BJP-ruled state yesterday. The earlier arrival date was April 5, sources said. Now Shri Gandhi will go to Kolar on 16th April.
Kolar is the same district where Mr Gandhi made the “Modi surname” remark in April 2019, just before the national election, that eventually led to his conviction in a criminal defamation case filed by a BJP leader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat . ,
Mr Shivakumar and his party colleague Siddaramaiah are the two prominent faces of the party in Karnataka. There has been speculation of unease between the two over the question of who will be the chief minister if the Congress comes to power, though both have denied any rift.
Congress has already announced its second list of candidates. BJP to hold meeting in Delhi today to finalize its candidates; The BJP is understood to have shortlisted three names from each constituency in Karnataka, news agency PTI reported.
The Congress faced opposition from some of its supporters and ticket aspirants after its name was not found in the second list of candidates.
“I will talk to everyone and try to resolve things. There will be anger (of those who have not got tickets), I will not deny it, they have worked for the party. There are many aspirants. We will sort everything out. ” Mr Shivakumar told reporters yesterday.
Karnataka has 224 assembly seats. Voting is on May 10; counting of votes on 13 may