Bengaluru, 13 March

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kickstart the BJP's Lok Sabha poll campaign in Karnataka by addressing a public meeting in Kalaburagi on 16 March, the party's State general secretary V Sunil Kumar said on Wednesday.

Kalaburagi is the home district of AICC President M Mallikarjun Kharge, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from there in 2009 and 2014 but lost to BJP's Umesh Jadhav in the last general elections. The Congress is likely to field the 81-year-old Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani this time, according to party sources.

Modi will also address a public gathering in Shivamogga on March 18, Sunil Kumar told reporters at the BJP State headquarters here. "The public meeting will be held at NV Playground on 16 March at Kalaburagi. The event in Shivamogga will take place at Allamaprabhu Ground on 18 March."

Karnataka is the most important State for the BJP in south India as it's only here that it had held power in the past. The BJP swept the previous Lok Sabha elections bagging 25 seats out of the total 28 in the State, while an independent backed by the party also won.

The Congress and the JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who were running a coalition government back then and fought the elections together, came a cropper winning a seat each. But the political landscape has changed significantly since then. The Congress scored a landslide victory in the May Assembly polls, winning 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly. The BJP and JD(S) slumped to 66 and 19 seats, respectively.

The JD(S) joined the BJP-led NDA last September and the two parties are fighting the elections together.

Sunil Kumar said BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with other national leaders will visit different Lok Sabha constituencies and address public gatherings in the coming weeks.