Mysore/Mysuru: A huge RSS route march and rally is taking place at Silk City of Ramanagara, in co-operation with Hindu Jagaran Vedike at 3 pm today. 

The rally will pass through two roads and the stage function will be held at the District Stadium at around 5 pm where RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat will address over 10,000 people. 

Prabhakar Bhat had earlier entered Kanakapura, a stronghold of former Minister and senior Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar on the pretext of making use of the Jesus statue controversy. 

Now, Bhat is ready to take on another stalwart of State politics, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (HDK) by hoisting the saffron flag in his backyard of Ramanagara. RSS activists of Magadi, Kanakapura, Channapattana and Ramanagara will participate in the event.

The route march will see the participation of at least 5,000 ‘Ganvesh’ candidates. ‘Ganvesh’ is the RSS uniform – Khaki trousers, white shirt, a cap, a belt, shoes and a stick. “This is the first time such a march is being held in Ramanagara,” said former Minister C.P. Yogeshwar, who has posted a photo of himself and one of his sons dressed in ‘Ganvesh’. Yogeshwar lost to Kumaraswamy in the 2018 Assembly polls on a BJP ticket. 

The route march will reach the District Stadium via Balageri, Town Police Station, Kempegowda Circle, Aijoor Circle, Bandimahakalamma Temple Road and Kamagagudi Circle. 

In addition to RSS activists, BJP workers of Ramanagara will also take part in the route march. More than 1,000 Police personnel have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident. Police from Bengaluru city and rural and Anekal have also arrived to beef up the security. It is said that the BJP is trying to target the 2023 legislative Assembly elections through this show.

A section of the BJP and party’s National Organisation Secretary B.L. Santosh sees Yogeshwar as a strong rival to fellow Vokkaliga political heavyweights – Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar – in the region. Yogeshwar sees the event in Channapattana as only a start. He says such events will be organised across the Old Mysuru region — Mandya, Mysuru Rural, Chikkaballapura, Kolar, Tumakuru, Chamarajanagar and Hassan.