Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah will visit Karnataka on Friday and will hold a roadshow in Devanahalli on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The BJP leader will also assess the party’s preparations for the state’s Assembly elections on May 10. This is Shah’s first visit to the state since the election timetable was announced on March 29. According to his schedule, Shah will do a roadshow in the afternoon in the taluk headquarters town of Devanahalli, the birthplace of 18th century Mysuru king Tipu Sultan, in Bengaluru Rural district. According to BJP sources, Shah will meet with senior party officials here in the evening to discuss election preparations. He is set to attend an event hosted by a private news channel on Saturday before flying back to New Delhi. The Union minister will campaign in Devanahalli for the BJP’s Pilla Munishamappa, who is up against sitting JD(S) MLA L N Narayanaswamy and Congress contender K H Muniyappa, a former Union minister and seven-time MP. Muniyappa, who was defeated in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is running for the first time in the Assembly elections. The struggle in the 2018 Assembly election was primarily between Narayanswamy (86,966 votes) and Venkataswamy (69,956) of the Congress. K Nagesh, the BJP candidate, came in third place with 9,820 votes.
