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With political programmes in three states on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off the Bharatiya Janata Party's determined southern push for the Lok Sabha election, a day before its announcement, as his party seeks to boost its seat tally from the region's five states.
Modi is scheduled to travel through all the southern states, focusing on places where the ruling party is hopeful of gains, for the next four days till March 19, BJP leaders said.
He will address a joint Telugu Desam Party-BJP-Jana Sena rally in Andhra Pradesh on March 17, a show of strength from the three parties that joined hands recently to take on the state's ruling YSR Congress Party.
BJP leaders said the prime minister will campaign in Nagarkurnool in Telangana and Gulbarga in Karnataka on Saturday.
Gulbarga has been a bastion of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who had, however, suffered defeat from his BJP rival in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
They said he is expected to address rallies in Jagtial in Telangana and Shivamogga in Karnataka on March 18 besides leading a roadshow in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
He will also lead a roadshow in Palakkad in Kerala and address a rally in Salem in Tamil Nadu on March 19.
Modi's political programmes on Friday include rallies in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and a roadshow in Telangana.
The five states along with the Union Territory of Puducherry, which has one constituency, account for 130 of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats.
The BJP was unable to win any seat in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala besides Puducherry in 2011. It had though swept Karnataka by winning 25 of its 28 seats and made impressive gains in Telangana by bagging for the first time four of its 17 seats.
The party is looking to make gains throughout the region and has built new alliances in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and won over a number of influential leaders from different parties in the region in its bid to expand its support.
With Modi setting a target of winning 370 seats for the BJP and more than 400 for the alliance led by it, the party is working overtime to make impressive gains in territories that have so far remained far from its stronghold, except for Karnataka.
The prime minister has spoken at a series of public meetings in the region while launching multiple development projects in the run up to the election, the schedule of which will be announced on Saturday.