In order to dispel fears about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), an awareness-cum-felicitation rally will be organised at Goldfinch City in Bengre-Kulur on January 27, BJP district president and MLA Sanjeeva Matandoor said.
“The awareness rally in Mangaluru, being the third in the state, is expected to draw a crowd of more than one lakh people,” Matandoor claimed, while briefing reporters at the BJP office on Tuesday.
“There are nearly 1,861 booths in Dakshina Kannada and 1,000 in Udupi district. Booth-level presidents have been instructed to attend the rally with a minimum of 10 members each,” Matandoor said and added that anybody can attend the meet.
“The programme is organised to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for implementing the CAA. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will deliver the felicitation address,” the president added.
The three-hour rally, which will begin at 3 pm, will be attended by BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel and district in-charge minister Kota Srinivas Poojary. Matandoor was confident of securing permission from the police to organise the rally.
The district president also appealed to traders, autorickshaw drivers and bus drivers to skip work in order to attend the awareness rally. He said that election to the post of the MCC mayor will be held soon.
MLAs D Vedavyas Kamath and Dr Bharat Shetty, BJP designated president Sudarshan, former MLA B Monappa Bhandary and others were present at the press meet.
In Udupi
Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, BJP Udupi district president, said that all the five MLAs from the district and the party workers would attend the convention. Coordinators have been appointed at Byndoor, Kundapur, Udupi, Kaup and Karkala to take the party workers to the convention, he added.
Condemning the incident of placing an explosive at the Mangalore International Airport, Hegde said, “Many people would have been killed if the explosive had gone unnoticed.”
He also condemned the statements of former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, that the incident was merely a mock drill.