Karnataka Cong leaders from border districts to help Maha poll effort

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru

Karnataka Congress leaders including ministers from the districts bordering Maharashtra are preparing to pitch in for the party’s poll effort in the lead up to the November 20 Assembly elections. Bidar, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura and Belagavi districts in Karnataka border Nanded, Latur, Dharashiv, Solapur, Sangli, Kolhapur and Sindhudurg districts in Maharashtra. Moreover, there are more than six lakh people in Maharashtra who speak Kannada as their mother tongue and the majority of them are concentrated in the border districts. Karnataka Congress leaders from the border districts also have relatives in Maharashtra. The Grand Old Party hopes that this connection coupled with outreach to local Kannadigas, especially in Solapur and Latur districts will help them deliver a good number of seats. Moreover, All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge is originally from Warwatti village in Bhalki taluk of Bidar district, which has a decent number of Marathi speakers.

It is said Kharge himself speaks some Marathi. Apparently, the party has drafted a list of leaders from the border districts in Karnataka to campaign in the neighbouring state. However, they were delayed due to Deepavali celebrations. On the one hand is the ruling Maha Yuti, which includes the BJP, the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and other smaller outfits. The ruling coalition is being challenged by the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance. Congress had also deployed 10 ministers from Karnataka, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, Housing Minister Zameer Ahmed and Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa in the Telangana Assembly elections in November 2023 for several weeks and with great success.