JOIN USMore than 20,000 people from the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad and the districts of Haveri and Gadag left for Bangalore on Wednesday night to witness the swearing-in ceremony of Jagadish Shettar as chief minister on Thursday.
While 130 government buses (at the rate of two buses per ward of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation) are ferrying his fans from the twin cities, hundreds of other private buses are taking his supporters from other places in the region to the State capital. Most trains bound for Bangalore had a large number of BJP workers travelling on them.
A special bus is taking representatives of women’s organisations headed by Shilpa, Shettar’s wife, to Bangalore.
“We have made arrangements for bathing and other daily chores in Tumkur, where the party workers will stop over en route to Bangalore. The buses will reach Gayatri Vihar in the Palace Grounds, where they will watch live on a giant screen the swearing-in of Shettar at the Raj Bhavan.
The supporters will be served breakfast and lunch at the Gayatri Vihar,” Mahesh Tenginakai, City unit president of the BJP, told Deccan Herald. Shettar is scheduled to address his fans at Gayatri Vihar after he takes oath of office. The supporters are set to felicitate the new chief minister thereafter.
“Shettar is likely to visit his hometown on July 21. We will make arrangements to give him a rousing welcome in Hubli, after we return from Bangalore,” Tenginakai said.
Police Commissioner K Ramachandra Rao, inspected the security arrangements in and around the residence of the chief minister designate on Wednesday. “A police outpost will come up near Shettar’s house.
Roads in the vicinity will be made one-way whenever he is in town. All these will inconvenience residents. But, these measures are inevitable due to security requirements,” the commissioner said.