Kumaraswamy thanks Defence ministry for its decision to hold

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Saturday thanked the Defence Ministry for its decision to continue to hold Aero India-2019 in Bengaluru.

"The Central Govt confirmed today that Aero India 2019 will be held in Bengaluru this year too. There was a concern regarding speculations that the biennial air show could be moved out of Bengaluru.

I thank the defence ministry for continuing the prestigious show in Bengaluru," the chief minister said in his message on Facebook.

The event will take place from February 20 to February 24 next year, which will combine a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries with public air shows, the Defence ministry said in a statement earlier in New Delhi.

Kumaraswamy had also earlier shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to shift the venue out of Bengaluru.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committeepresident Dinesh Gundu Rao too thanked union defence ministerNirmala Sitharaman, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, for letting the event take place in Bengaluru.

He said that many organisations, including Congress, had mounted pressure on the Centre not to shift the venue from Bengaluru to Lucknow.

"Bengaluru has become a big brand and this event had become synonymous with Bengaluru across the globe," Rao told reporters.

Since its inception in 1996, the event has been held in Bengaluru.

However,there were strong speculations that the event may be shifted to Lucknow after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made a request to the defence minister to this effect.

He had said that selecting Lucknow as the venue would give a fillip to the proposed defence corridor in Uttar Pradesh.

In the budget for 2018-19, the union government announced it would set up two defence corridors -- one in Tamil Nadu and other in Uttar Pradesh-- to promote defence manufacturing.