Amit Shah in K'taka, to hold BJP core committee meeting

Bengaluru, April 1

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the core committee meeting of the BJP on Friday evening and is likely to finalise on cabinet expansion. The meeting will also discuss the emerging situation in the state in the backdrop of series of developments in connection with the hijab row, ban on Muslim merchants in temples and halal ban campaign.

Shah arrived here on Thursday.

The meeting will be attended by state party in-charge Arun Singh, National General Secretary C.T. Ravi, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, state party President Nalin Kumar Kateel and former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. Heavy political activities are shaping up within the state BJP unit and the meeting has assumed importance as the state is entering into a poll mode. The Assembly elections are scheduled in 2023.

Before this, Amit Shah will participate in three major programmes on Friday. He will take part in Guruvandana programme and 115th birth anniversary celebrations of late Lingayat seer Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Mutt in the morning in Tumakuru. About four lakh people are expected to attend the programme.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had made repeated visits to monitor the arrangements in Tumakuru. Yediyurappa's son B.Y. Vijayendra was stationed in the Siddaganga Mutt and had been looking into the arrangements.

Later, Shah will participate in the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the hospital in Muddenahalli village of Kolar district and will also attend a public programme here.

Amit Shah will attend the Cooperation convention organised in the premises of the Palace Grounds in Bengaluru. He will inaugurate "Yashaswini" health insurance scheme for members of cooperative institutes. The scheme will include 1.50 crore members, including those in the cooperation sector and their family members and provide cashless facilities for health issues at hospitals on par with private health insurance companies. Amit Shah will also launch Nandini Ksheera Abhivrudhi Bank, the state's first milk bank.