Mysuru: BJP MP and State General Secretary Shobha Karandlaje will stay tonight (Feb.10) at a slum-dwellers house in Kyathamaranahalli and hold meetings. The ‘slum stay’ and outreach programme ahead of the polls assumes significance.

She will stay overnight at Indresh’s house in Kyathamaranahalli slum colony and the local BJP leaders will also be present. She will arrive tonight at 8 pm and the slum-dwellers will accord her a traditional welcome. First, she will hold a meeting with them at Sri Rama Mandira and later have dinner at Indresh’s house and stay there.

The next day (Feb.11), after breakfast they, will gather again at Sri Rama Mandira and she will release a report on the conditions of the slums in the State brought out by BJP Slum Morcha. Later, she will hold discussions with the locals and listen to their problems.

BJP State Slum Morcha General Secretary R. Kautilya Raghu visited the slum colony last evening and interacted with the slum-dwellers and informed them about the programme.

Secretaries H.G. Giridhar, Dattatreya Shinde, City President Mahadev Prasad S. Madhu, ST Morcha City Vice-President Karthik Nayak and others were present.

Special programme: The aim of the ‘slum stay’ is to educate the slum-dwellers on how they have been merely treated as vote banks by the Congress leaders for several decades. Also, the leaders will highlight how they are coming up with novel programmes to mitigate their problems.

The other State BJP leaders including the State President and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, K.S. Eshwarapa, R. Ashok and others will stay in the slums in different parts of the State.

Kyathamaranahalli slum comes under Ward no. 59 in N.R. Constituency and thousands of poor families in the Colony here are deprived of basic facilities like drinking water, roads and proper houses.

They say that when it is very difficult for them to make a living working on daily wagers, the question of educating the children does not arise at all. They also have the same aspirations as others to improve their lives.

Our family is indeed very fortunate that a leader like Shobha Karandlaje is staying in a poor man’s house. We will try to feed her the best food we can cook. My wife Krishnaveni, daughters Yashaswini, Jayashree and Vanita are also very happy.

—Indresh, Slum-dweller