Bengaluru: The poll-eve mercury is set to spiral with both star campaigners Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi set to criss-cross Karnataka on Thursday, but the focus will be on Mr Modi's first visit to ore-rich Ballari and whether he would keep the Reddy brothers at bay in view of their involvement in the mega-buck illegal mining scam.
Soon after Congress leaders lambasted the top brass of BJP about several tickets handed out to the kin of tainted Reddy brothers, party president Amit Shah skipped a visit to Ballari and flew to the neighbouring district to address an election rally last week.
Mr Shah had earlier announced that his party has nothing to do with mine baron and former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy but the latter made many appearances in public along with former minister and BJP candidate Boya Sriramulu and state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa.
Mr Modi, however, addresses a rally in Ballari on Thursday but it would be interesting to see whether any of the Reddy borthers - G Somashekar Reddy is the BJP candidate in Ballari city - would be allowed to share the dais with the Prime Minister. "Going by the rallies which he addressed on Tuesday in Santemaralli, Udupi and Chikkodi, where Mr Modi kept candidates away from the dais, he may not share the dais with the tainted Mr Somashekhar Reddy," a BJP functionary said.
As per the revised schedule, the Prime Minister would address 18 rallies excluding three he addressed on Tuesday. He would return to Karnataka on May 5 and 6 and then again on May 8 and 9.
The state unit of BJP had earlier maintained that Mr Modi would address 15 or 16 rallies. From Bidar to Kolar and from Ballari to Mangaluru he would cover 211 constituencies through his 21 rallies, an average of over 10 Assembly segments through each rally.
