This Article is From Sep 24, 2013

Sonia Gandhi to visit Karnataka on a thanks-giving trip

Bangalore: Congress President Sonia Gandhi would visit Karnataka on a thanks-giving trip after her party recorded a land-slide victory in the Assembly elections earlier this year.

She would thanks for the mandate people of the state had given to Congress and address a convention of party workers in the district headquarters town of Mandya on September 30, State Congress President G Parameshwara said today.

Mrs Gandhi, during her visit to Tumkur last year, had chanted the unity mantra and exhorted party leaders to sink their differences, saying only such an approach would yield rich electoral dividends.

The selection of venue for her September 30 public convention has not gone unnoticed as it was in Mandya that the Congress wrested the Lok Sabha seat from the Janata Dal (Secular) of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in the recent bypolls, along with Bangalore Rural.

The Congress has already short-listed candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, where it's expecting to win at least 20 of the total 28 seats.

The Congress had bagged six seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, while the then ruling BJP secured a lion's share of 19, with JDS getting three.

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