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Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, who arrived in Bengaluru on Saturday on a three-day visit to Karnataka, claimed that the BJP would return to power in the assembly elections in early 2018.
Addressing about 500 party cadres and its state unit leaders outside the airport on arrival from New Delhi, Shah said:
Wearing the popular ‘Mysore Peta’ (headgear) and sporting a saffron shawl, Shah said the party would strive to win about 150 seats in the 225-member assembly to form the next government.
The BJP formed its first government in the southern state after winning a simple majority in the 2008 assembly election and was in power for five years with three Chief Ministers, but lost to the ruling Congress in the 2013 poll.
“Though Shah is visiting Karnataka as part of his 110-day nationwide tour to strengthen the party's presence, he will have a firsthand account of the political situation in the state and draw plans for the upcoming assembly poll,” a party official.
Besides Yeddyurappa and Shettar, Gowda was the state's Chief Minister for a year from August 2011 to September 2012 after the former resigned following his indictment in the multi-crore mining scam in the state by the anti-graft body Lokayukta (Ombudsman).
The party's chief will call on hill town Adichunchanagiri Mutt seer Nirmalananda Swamiji in the city on Sunday and visit the ashram of Art of Living founder Ravi Shankar on the city's southern outskirts.
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