Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar to lead separate bus tours in north and south Karnataka

Leader of Opposition in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah and state Congress President D K Shivakumar will embark on separate bus tour from Friday, as part of party's 'Praja Dhwani Yatre' ahead of assembly elections, after concluding the joint tour in the first phase.

One team of Congress leaders headed by Siddaramaiah will tour Assembly constituencies in north Karnataka region, while Shivakumar will be leading the way in southern districts.

Siddaramaiah, a former Chief Minister, who also commands popularity in the northern part of the state, will kickstart his bus tour along with a team of 35 party leaders from Basavakalyan in Bidar district.

He will first visit 'Anubhava Mantapa', where he is expected to pay respects to the statue of 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara before addressing a public meeting there.

During the yatre till February 18 (in between taking a break to attend events and assembly session), he will be covering assembly constituencies in the districts of Bidar, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Hubballi, Dharwad, and Koppal.

Shivakumar will be undertaking his bus yatra between February 3 and 9, heading a team of 54 party leaders. He will start his yatra in Mulbagal in Kolar district, after performing pooja at the famous Kurudumale Maha Ganapathi temple.

He will cover assembly segments in Kolar, Chitradurga, Bengaluru Rural and Shivamogga districts. Shivakumar hails from Vokkaliga community, which is a dominant community in several parts of southern districts.

Hitting the road in the poll-bound state, the Congress on January 11 had begun its first phase of statewide 'Praja Dhwani Yatre' from Belagavi.

As part of the bus yatra then, both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, who are nursing chief ministerial ambitions in the event of the Congress coming to power, traveled jointly until January 29.