Periscope: Modi to visit Karnataka, Sonia Gandhi to host dinner, and more

On the campaign trail
 
As part of his campaign for the Karnataka assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Raichur, part of Hyderabad-Karnataka region of the state, for a rally on Tuesday. The Raichur region sends 31 MLAs to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. In the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress had bagged victory in the belt, which includes the six districts of Bidar, Raichur, Yadgir, Ballari, Gulbarga and Koppala. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has already completed on a trip to this region. Last year, when BJP President Amit Shah had visited, local newspapers reported farmers asked him some tough questions on the BJP’s promises related to agriculture.

 
Dinner for unity
 

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has invited leaders of all the opposition parties for a dinner on Tuesday in a fresh bid to forge a united front against the ruling BJP. Sonia Gandhi's invitation comes at a time when talk of a non-BJP, non-Congress front is doing the rounds following a proposal by TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for a national consultation process on the matter. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is yet to confirm her acceptance. Banerjee has spoken to Rao and DMK working president MK Stalin for coordination inside and outside Parliament.        

Visit to PM’s constituency
 
French President Emmanuel Macron will be in Varanasi on Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of his ongoing official visit. Macron will visit the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Trade Facilitation Centre in Lalpur areathere. He will also go to Assi and Dashaswamedh ghats and take a boat ride on Ganga. In the afternoon, Modi will leave the French President and his wife  Brigitte Marie-Claude Macron to catch up on constituency work and will return to Delhi in the evening. For Varanasi, visits of foreign dignitaries are now a usual affair. Shinzo Abe had visited the city in 2015  and the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected to visit later this month.