Amit Shah to visit Karnataka on 31 December; will review BJP's state election preparations, hold meetings with MLAs

New Delhi: After victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, BJP chief Amit Shah will visit Karnataka on 31 December to review the party’s organisational work in the Congress-ruled state which faces assembly polls in the first half of next year.

During the visit Shah is expected to hold a meeting of legislators and MPs and of party’s core committee.

The visit comes in the backdrop of BJP’s Karnataka unit and the ruling Congress blaming each other on the deadlock over getting Mahadayi river water from neighbouring Goa to the four drought-hit districts in the state’s northern region. Goa is ruled by the BJP.

The 77 kilometer-long Mahadayi or Mandovi river originates at Bhimgad in the Western Ghats in Belagavi district of north-west Karnataka and flows into the neighbouring Goa and eventually joins the Arabian Sea.

Karnataka has been asking Goa since 2001 to release 7.6 thousand million cubic feet of the river water to meet the drinking needs of its people in Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag, Bagalkote and Belagavi districts and irrigating their farmlands.

Karnataka is one of the two major states ruled by Congress and the BJP is making efforts to wrest the state.