Today in Politics: PM Narendra Modi’s southern focus continues, with rallies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu

After officially kicking off the NDA’s campaign with a rally in Andhra Pradesh’s Palnadu alongside the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Jana Sena Party (JSP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue with his southern push on Monday.

First up is a public meeting at Shimoga, which comes two days after the PM’s first election meeting in Karnataka that was held in Kalaburagi, the home turf of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.

Shimoga is the home district of BS Yediyurappa, one of the tallest leaders of the BJP in the state. His elder son B Y Raghavendra, who is the current state BJP chief, is the BJP’s candidate for the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency. Here, the party is also facing disgruntlement within its ranks. Senior party leader and former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa, who was denied a ticket, says he will contest as an Independent candidate from the seat.

Karnataka is shaping up to be a decisive battle in the coming polls. The BJP, which has allied with the Janata Dal (Secular), is hoping to repeat its 2019 performance, when it won 25 of the 28 seats. But the Congress, which stormed to power in the Karnataka Assembly elections held in May last year and has a strong organisational base in the state, is likely to pose a challenge to the BJP.

Later in the day, the PM will head to Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu for a roadshow. Coimbatore is one of the seats the BJP is eyeing to make inroads into the state. The party has never had a presence in Tamil Nadu — it won a seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but drew a blank in 2019 — but has been actively campaigning over the last year. State unit chief Annamalai completed his state-wide En Mann En Makkal (My soil, my people) campaign last month as part of which he