Rahul Gandhi visits Siddaganga Mutt ahead of state polls

Tumakuru, March 31 : In an attempt to woo the Lingayat comm ty ahead of the assembly elections next year, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi visited prominent Siddaganga Mutt and met top seers here on Thursday. A politically powerful comm ty in Karnataka, it has been voting for the BJP after late Rajiv Gandhi who was then the Congress President, had unceremoniously asked its tallest leader Veerendra Patil from of chief minister in 1990. It was Patil who formed the Lingayat vote bank in favour of Congress. The party won 179 of 224 Assembly seats in 1989 and faced a humiliating defeat in the 1994 polls winning just 36 seats after Patil’s removal. Infuriated Lingayats had shifted their loyalties en bloc to the Janata Party and later to BJP. The Congress has been working towards winning back the comm ty’s loyalty, but BJP has been a stumbling block who have maintained very thick relations with the top Lingayat seers. on Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to meet the Siddaganga Mutt seers tomorrow. Reportedly Gandhi is scheduled to meet senior leaders in connection with strengthening the party for the next election. On Friday, Gandhi will visit the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office and attend the executive meeting with the frontals. On the other hand, Amit Shah will visit Siddaganga Mutt and Muddenahalli in Chikkaballapura. At 10:30 am, Shah will be participating in the 115th birth anniversary and Guru Vandana programme of the late Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Mutt, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said. The home minister will visit Muddenahalli to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony of a new medical college and public function at 2 pm. Later in the day, he will participate in the Sahakara Sammelana in Bengaluru’s Palace Grounds, where he will be releasing the logo of the state government’s proposed Nandini Ksheera Abhivrudhi Bank and relaunch the Yashaswini Scheme. BDN GNK

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