AICC president Rahul Gandhi will tour Bombay Karnataka for three days from Saturday. He will address a meeting of rural women and members of Stree Shakti groups, meet businessmen and youth associations, apart from speaking at public rallies. He will also visit temples and dargahs in Saundatti, Gudachi and Vijayapura.
The rally is significant for more than one reason. He will not address a rally or meet leaders in Belagavi city. Belagavi (North) MLA Firoze Sait has planned to get the young leader to unfurl a 110-metre-tall national flag in the Kote Kere area, but he is not so sure now. Belagavi city has three MLA seats, held by BJP leader Sanjay Patil (Rural) and MES leader Sambhaji Patil (Belagavi South), apart from Mr. Sait.
Mr. Gandhi will skip Gokak and Yamakanamaradi constituencies, represented by the Jarkiholi brothers Ramesh and Satish, counted among the Congress powerhouses in the district.
Party insiders say that this is to avoid heartburn among the brothers who are supposedly having some differences over their relative importance in the party. While Ramesh Jarkiholi is in-charge Minister for Belagavi, Satish Jarkiholi is the AICC secretary in charge of Telangana.
“If he speaks in one constituency and skips the other, it will lead to bad blood. He cannot speak in both places as he has to cover four districts in three days. We are thus dropping both the constituencies from the schedule. We are instead focussing on seats such as Athani that are now held by BJP MLAs,” said a Congress leader.
The Janashirvad rally will start at a public meeting in Karimasuti in Athani on Saturday. Congress leaders say that they are expecting a crowd of over two lakh at the rally. Mr. Satish Jarkiholi said that they are erecting a 24,000 sq ft wide canopy to accommodate the crowd.
