Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State Core Committee has finalised the itinerary of National President Amit Shah, who is visiting the State from Aug.12 to 14. Apart from several brain-storming sessions with party office-bearers and elected representatives, the BJP has organised a meeting with intellectuals for which the invitees are being shortlisted. Shah will have a packed schedule and is scheduled to attend over 25 meetings in three days and his visit assumes significance as elections to the State Assembly is barely 10 months away. Karnataka will be the 18th State Amit Shah is visiting as part of his nation-wide tour to strengthen the party.

Sources in the saffron party reveal that the visit is expected to bring more order in the party that is riddled with internal strife, greed for power and lack of political acumen among its State unit leaders. Going by the itinerary released by the party, Shah seems to be keen on 2019 LS polls while stitching the party together for the 2018 Assembly battle.

Addressing reporters in Bengaluru yesterday, State BJP spokesperson and senior MLA S. Suresh Kumar said that Shah is scheduled to attend about 25 meetings during his visit. He is scheduled to arrive at Kempegowda International Airport at 10.45 am on Aug. 12. Party workers have planned to give him a grand welcome near the airport. Shah is scheduled to attend a series of meetings at the BJP office in Malleswaram. He will interact with the heads of all Prakoshtas (cells) of the Party, Organisational Secretaries, District in-Charge Secretaries, District Presidents and MLAs. A separate meeting will be held with intellectuals and noted personalities. Later in the day, he will hold the State Core Committee meeting.

Keen on wooing the Vokkaliga community, dominant in southern Karnataka into its fold, on Aug.13, Shah will visit the Adichunchanagiri Mutt at Nagamangala in Mandya district and meet Seer Sri Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji. He will meet Sri Ravishankar Guruji at Art of Living headquarters on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Shah will also hold separate meetings with OBC and SC/ST morchas of the party reflecting on the party’s increasing focus on backward class communities.

On August 14, Shah is scheduled to hold a meeting with Vistaraks. Later, he will have a meeting with prominent leaders of the party from 11 Parliamentary constituencies, which the BJP failed to win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.