Samajwadi Party president and MP Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister — son Akhilesh Yadav will be in Karnataka for two days from Sunday.
On Sunday evening, they will attend an iftar party in a star hotel in the City, to be hosted by C P Yogeeshwara, the SP MLA from Channapatna.
On Monday, the Yadavs will participate in a public rally in Chitradurga town. While Mulayam will reach Chitradurga by helicopter, Akhilesh will travel by road, according to Yogeeshwara.
The SP is holding the rally, aimed at strengthening the party in Chitradurga, which has a considerable Yadav (golla) population. The party is all set to field a candidate from the Chitradurga Lok Sabha (LS) seat. Yogeeshwara said former minister Goolihatti Shekar is joining the SP on Monday. He will be declared the party’s candidate for the LS seat.
Shekar, who was an Independent MLA in the last Assembly, was sports and youth affairs minister in the Yeddyurappa cabinet. He was removed as minister due to differences between him and Yeddyurappa. He had unsuccessfully contested from Hosadurga in the recent Assembly polls.
Yogeeshwara said that the party was yet to decide on fielding candidates for the Lok Sabha byelections to be held from Bangalore Rural and Mandya seats on August 21.
The filing of nominations began on Saturday. While a lone application has been filed by a doctor from Salem for the Bangalore Rural seat, which has fallen vacant following the resignation of JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, no papers have been filed for the Mandya seat. The last date for filing the nomination papers is August 3.