Shah to visit poll-bound Karnataka for seers' blessings

Hubballi (Karnataka) : BJP President Amit Shah will pay a two-day visit to Karnataka from Thursday to seek the blessings of seers of Hindu mutts ahead of the May 12 Assembly elections, a party leader said on Tuesday.

"Shah will arrive here on Thursday and visit Siddharoodha mutt and Murugha mutt in the state's northwest part to seek the blessings of their seers for our party's victory," Bharatiya Janata Party's state leader Jagadish Shettar told reporters here.

Shah will also visit the memorial of Kannada poet Da Ra Bendre and also pay him respects at Bendre Bhavan at Dharwad.

The BJP chief will participate in a party's rice collection programme at Abbigeri in Gadag district and visit Puttaraja Gavai ashram and Veeranarayana temple at Gadag.

The party chief will also visit Mooru Savira mutt in Haveri district.

Shah will participate in roadshows in Hubballi, meet farmers at Hebulli hamlet near Dharwad and interact with industrialists, businessmen and traders.

The party chief will meet BJP cadres and discuss the poll campaign strategies," added Shettar.

The BJP on Sunday released the names of 72 candidates ahead of poll notification on April 17.

The party, which came to power in the state for the first time on its own in the 2008 Assembly polls, lost to the Congress in the last elections in May 2013.