Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address an election rally in Karnataka’s Shivamogga on Monday, with this being his first rally in the southern state since the Election Commission of India (ECI), on Saturday, released the schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Leaders of the PM’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said they expect a turnout of around 2.5 lakh people for the programme, which will begin at 2 pm at the Allama Prabhu ground in this home district of ex-Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, the party’s tallest leader in the state.

In a major headache for the BJP, however, senior leader and former Karnataka deputy chief minister KS Eshwarappa will not participate in the public gathering, as he remained ‘adamant’ on giving the event a miss, despite the saffron party’s efforts to placate him. Miffed with the BJP for not giving ticket to his son KE Kantesh, Eshwarappa will contest the  Lok Sabha polls from the Shivamogga constituency, from where the party has fielded BY Raghavendra, the elder son of Yediyurappa, the former chief minister.

While Raghavendra is the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) from the Shivamogga seat, his brother BY Vijayendra is the BJP’s Karnataka unit president, and the sitting legislator from their father’s bastion of Shikaripura.

“PM Narendra Modi should come to power again and the party must be free from the control of the Yediyurappa family. Hence, I am contesting the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP in Karnataka is becoming family-controlled, just like the ruling Congress,” Eshwarappa told reporters on Sunday.

Karnataka accounts for 28 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. In the previous 2019 national polls, the BJP, along with an independent, won 26 constituencies, and the Congress-JD(S) combine bagged the remaining two seats.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases, beginning on April 19, and concluding on June 1. The counting of votes for all 543 seats will be done on June 4.

(With PTI inputs)