Amit Shah to review BJP's poll preparedness in Karnataka

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah will visit Karnataka on Sunday to take stock of the party's preparations in the poll-bound state and interact with the party's MPs, MLAs and office-bearers, a party official said here on Saturday.

During the day-long visit, he will have one meeting with the legislators and MPs and a separate meeting with office-bearers of the party's legislature wing.

In another meeting, he would interact with the state office-bearers, district chiefs and district office-bearers, a BJP statement said.

His last meeting will be with the members of the party's core group in the state.

Karnataka is one of the two major states ruled by the Congress and assembly polls are expected to take place in the first-half of next year. The BJP is keen to wrest the state from the Congress.

Shah's visit comes in the backdrop of BJP's Karnataka unit and the ruling Congress blaming each other on the deadlock over getting Mahadayi river water from neighbouring Goa to the four drought-hit districts in the state's northern region. Goa has a BJP-led government.

The 77-km-long Mahadayi or Mandovi river originates at Bhimgad in the Western Ghats in Belagavi district of north-west Karnataka and flows into the neighbouring Goa and eventually joins the Arabian Sea.

Karnataka has been asking Goa since 2001 to release 7.6 thousand million cubic feet of the river water to meet the drinking needs of its people in Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag, Bagalkote and Belagavi districts and irrigating their farmlands.

--IANS

ps/nir/dg