Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will make sure Karnataka is "Congress-free" after the upcoming elections.

 

"The countdown for the Congress to be dispelled from the state has begun. We will make sure Karnataka is Congress-free," Modi said at a party rally in Bengaluru. 

 

The Prime Minister was on a day-long visit to the city to address the event that marks the culmination of the party's 90-day rally across the districts of Karnataka.

 

"The BJP will take Karnataka to new heights on the path of development."

 

Praising the government's budget which was announced on February 1, the PM mentioned how the Rs 17,000 crore allotted for the suburban railway in Bengaluru will help the people. 

 

In an attempt to please the people at the rally, the Prime Minister delivered the first few lines of his address in Kannada.

 

Having landed at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Airport in the afternoon, the Prime Minister was flown to the venue in a chopper.

 

Thousands of youth and IT professionals from the city, along with several farmers and citizens from across the state, attended the event at the sprawling Palace Grounds.

 

Named "Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivartana Yatra" (journey to build a new Karnataka), the rally across 224 assembly constituencies of the state was flagged off on November 2 by the party's national President Amit Shah.

 

But just like Shah, PM Modi also chose to not speak about the contentious Mahadayi issue. Farmers and pro-Kannada organisations had planned a city-wide bandh on Sunday in order to protest the PM's silence over the issue. But the protesters had to be content with demonstrations at Freedom Park after the Karnataka High Court stayed the bandh on Friday.

 

The Congress was quick to point out Modi's stance and took a dig at him on Twitter. 

 

The rally, to bring the BJP back to power in the southern state on the plank of transforming it through development, was led by its state unit president and former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and the party's other state leaders.

 

Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal who are in-charge of the BJP poll campaign in Karnataka, Ananth Kumar, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Ananthkumar Hegde who hail from the state, were also at the event.

 

Legislative assembly elections in Karnataka are due in April-May.

 

The BJP came to power on its own for the first time in 2008 but lost to the Congress after five years in the May 2013 election.

 

(With IANS inputs)