<p>Congress president Rahul Gandhi's second day of his Karnataka tour did not, by any means, look or feel like it was a Sunday.</p>.<p>Rahul started the day by garlanding Rani Chennamma's statue in Yalburga, before hitting the road in his specially-designed tour bus.</p>.<p>Downtown Kushtagi beat the laziness of a sunny Sunday morning to give Gandhi a rousing welcome. Among hordes of supporters were women in green sarees queued up with kalashas on their head, waiting to give Gandhi a traditional welcome. Visibly overwhelmed, Gandhi got down and walked a few hundred metres on the road, waving and greeting them.</p>.<p>As the bus moved from one village to another, Gandhi was seen glued to his phone or looking out of the window at the lush green fields of the countryside.</p>.<p>Sizeable crowds awaited Gandhi all along his route, even in smaller villages such as Hulihyder, Medidal and Siddapura.</p>.<p class="CrossHead">Short, sharp speeches</p>.<p>"Namaskara. Channagiddira?" was how Gandhi began his short speech at Kushtagi. These five-minute-long speeches that he went on to make at Tavaragera and Gangavati were sharper in their attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>.<p>"Modi comes to Karnataka and talks corruption, but the BJP government in Karnataka had three chief ministers, four ministers went to jail and eleven resigned due to corruption," Gandhi said.</p>.<p class="CrossHead">Temple run</p>.<p>Rahul continued his temple run by visiting the Kanakachala Lakshmi Narasimha temple in Kanakagiri. Local residents say the temple is at least 500 years old and was built by a chieftain named Hulicheppa Nayaka. Gandhi spent about 10 minutes here.</p>.<p>The temple boasts of Dravidian architecture of the Vijayanagar era and is a protected monument of the Archaeological Survey of India. It is said that the deity in the temple is a Saligrama (fossilised shell). The Kanakachalapathi Jatre is a popular fair the temple hosts during the February-March season.</p>.<p>Kanakagiri legislator Shivaraj Tangadagi and Gangavati legislator Iqbal Ansari joined Gandhi's entourage in the respective constituencies. A huge crowd gathered near the Indira Gandhi statue in Gangavathi town, where he addressed a crowd. Police personnel had a tough time controlling the crowd. </p>
<p>Congress president Rahul Gandhi's second day of his Karnataka tour did not, by any means, look or feel like it was a Sunday.</p>.<p>Rahul started the day by garlanding Rani Chennamma's statue in Yalburga, before hitting the road in his specially-designed tour bus.</p>.<p>Downtown Kushtagi beat the laziness of a sunny Sunday morning to give Gandhi a rousing welcome. Among hordes of supporters were women in green sarees queued up with kalashas on their head, waiting to give Gandhi a traditional welcome. Visibly overwhelmed, Gandhi got down and walked a few hundred metres on the road, waving and greeting them.</p>.<p>As the bus moved from one village to another, Gandhi was seen glued to his phone or looking out of the window at the lush green fields of the countryside.</p>.<p>Sizeable crowds awaited Gandhi all along his route, even in smaller villages such as Hulihyder, Medidal and Siddapura.</p>.<p class="CrossHead">Short, sharp speeches</p>.<p>"Namaskara. Channagiddira?" was how Gandhi began his short speech at Kushtagi. These five-minute-long speeches that he went on to make at Tavaragera and Gangavati were sharper in their attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>.<p>"Modi comes to Karnataka and talks corruption, but the BJP government in Karnataka had three chief ministers, four ministers went to jail and eleven resigned due to corruption," Gandhi said.</p>.<p class="CrossHead">Temple run</p>.<p>Rahul continued his temple run by visiting the Kanakachala Lakshmi Narasimha temple in Kanakagiri. Local residents say the temple is at least 500 years old and was built by a chieftain named Hulicheppa Nayaka. Gandhi spent about 10 minutes here.</p>.<p>The temple boasts of Dravidian architecture of the Vijayanagar era and is a protected monument of the Archaeological Survey of India. It is said that the deity in the temple is a Saligrama (fossilised shell). The Kanakachalapathi Jatre is a popular fair the temple hosts during the February-March season.</p>.<p>Kanakagiri legislator Shivaraj Tangadagi and Gangavati legislator Iqbal Ansari joined Gandhi's entourage in the respective constituencies. A huge crowd gathered near the Indira Gandhi statue in Gangavathi town, where he addressed a crowd. Police personnel had a tough time controlling the crowd. </p>
