Mangaluru : Congress president Rahul Gandhi will kickstart the third leg of his election campaign in poll bound Karnataka from March 20.

Gandhi, who visited northern parts of the state in the earlier two rounds, will be touring the south coastal and Malnad regions during his two-day visit.

Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagaluru that has strong BJP presence, and Hassan, the home district of former Prime Minister and Janata Dal Secular supremo H D Deve Gowda will be part of the Congress president’s visit this time.

Rahul Gandhi will arrive on March 20 forenoon ; 11:30am at Mangaluru International Airport from where he will travel by helicopter to Kaup. From 1pm to 1:35pm he will take part at the inauguration function of Rajiv Gandhi political institute at Yermal. From 1:45pm to 2:20pm he will be taking part in a corner meeting at Padubidri.

In the afternoon around 3:30pm he will be arriving Mulki where he will be welcomed by Dakshina Kannada district congress. Later a road show and a meeting will be held at Surathkal from 4:20pm to 4:50pm. At 5:20pm in the evening, a ‘Yatra’ will be held from the city’s Ambedkar circle to Nehru Maidan. From 6pm onwards, a huge conference for Congress activists will begin at Nehru Maidan.

After the culmination of the workers conference, from 7:30pm to 9pm, Rahul will be visiting Mangaluru’s Kudroli Shri Gokarnatha Temple, Rosario Church and Ullal Dargha.

Since Rahul Gandhi’s road show in Uttar Kannada was a massive success, more attention has been given to make his road show in D.K. and Udupi another success.

For the ‘Yatra’s’ unprecedented organization, preliminary meetings have already been done under the leadership of Minister Ramanath Rai and Harish Kumar. For the night of March 20, Rahul Gandhi will reside at the city’s Circuit House. SPG forces have already arrived to take care of the security concerns around Circuit House. On March 21, Rahul Gandhi will conduct meetings at Circuit House for the presidents of D.K. and Udupi district Congress block from morning 8:30am to 9:30am and a meeting with the districts senior party leaders from 9am to 10am. At 10:20am he is scheduled to travel to Sringeri in helicopter to take part in the rally programme at Chikmagalur.

Padubidri: KPCC president Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Yermal and Padubidri on March 20th. Therefore, DIG Sachin Kumar of Rahul’s Special Protection Group arrived here on Saturday and visited Rajeev Gandhi National Academy of Political Science centre at Tenka Yermal. He inspected the premises where the inauguration will be taking place and provided instructions.

A helipad will be created at Tenka composite school ground. From there, Rahul will go to Tenka and inaugurate the Rajeev Gandhi Political science centre. Later he will hold conversation with party workers at Congress Seva Dal. He will then go to Padubidri and will speak to the people near Saas hotel. He will then leave for Hejamadi and via the road leave for Mangaluru.

Continuing with his visit to religious places, as done in the last two rounds, Gandhi will visit Gokarnatheswara temple, Rosario church, Ullal dargah, Sringeri Sharadamba temple and also Sringeri mutt.

He will also be meeting Jagadguru Shankaracharya, Sri Bharati Tirtha Swamiji of the Sringeri mutt.