Puttur, May 6: Raising the pitch for the BJP's election campaign in south Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday held massive roadshows at Puttur and Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district and Karkala in Udupi.
Adityanath, who first arrived in Puttur, where party candidate Asha Thimmappa Gowda is pitted against Ashok Kumar Rai of Congress and a BJP rebel Arun Kumar Puthila, said the BJP is taking the country on path of progress.
Addressing the gathering from the campaign vehicle after the end of his roadshow, Adityanatha said the Congress has always been trying to put hurdles on the path of progress.
Though the Congress tried to prevent the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, the BJP successfully fought the issue in court and the temple will turn into a reality in the near future, he said.
The Congress is now after Bajrang Dal as the party is against patriotic people and try out to demoralise those who uphold nationalist policies, he said.
Adityanath said the people of Karnataka should vote for a Team India' to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the BJP has fielded the best candidate in Puttur and asked voters to support Asha Thimmappa Gowda.
Adityanath later campaigned for State Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar at Karkala in Udupi, where also the BJP is facing an unlikely rebel in the form of Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik. Congress has fielded Muniyalu Uday Shetty, a confidante of former Chief Minister Veerappa Moily in the seat.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister held a grand roadshow in Karkala and spoke to the gathering in a few words exhorting them to vote for a "double engine" government for sustained progress.
At the final roadshow of the day at B C Road in Bantwal, where BJP's young leader and incumbent MLA Rajesh Naik is facing former Minister B Ramanath Rai of Congress, Adityanath was given a rousing welcome by enthusiastic party workers.
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Addressing the huge gathering, Adityanath called upon the people of Karnataka to stop the Congress from coming to power as the party has declared intention to ban patriotic organisations like the Bajrang Dal. "Congress is always blocking the path to progress initiated by the BJP government under Narendra Modi," he said.
In a passionate speech, he also invited the people of Karnataka to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh when the Ram temple will be inaugurated in January next year, to the loud cheers from the public.
In all the three meetings, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel and leaders including candidates in the respective segments accompanied Adityanath.
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Jaipur (PTI): Rohit Sharma made a mockery of an inexperienced Sikkim bowing attack with a 94-ball-155 on his return to List A cricket, as Mumbai cruised to an eight-wicket victory in their opening Group C match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Wednesday.
A near capacity crowd of 20,000-odd fans celebrated the Christmas eve witnessing the 'HitMan' carnage, which included 18 fours and nine sixes with Mumbai chasing down a target of 237 in just 30.3 overs.
Truth be told, there was not much to write home about Sikkim's bowling unit with Palzor Tamang, Kranthi Kumar, Gurinder Singh and Ankur Malik looking overawed or clueless from the moment Rohit took guard.
It started with a trademark pull-shot over mid-wicket off Kranthi for a boundary, followed by a swivel pull shot off his hips.
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The pacers lacked sting and twice, seamer Palzor's 125 kmph deliveries were swept fine behind the square for sixes.
Rohit played a few late cuts against the spinners using the pace of their deliveries. He was dropped twice but Rohit remained undeterred and always found a way to bisect the gaps at time and over of his choice.
Rohit also hit some delectable straight shots leaving the Sikkim bowlers in complete awe.
"It is the best day of our lives as we shared the pitch with such a great cricketer. He respected the good balls and punished the poor deliveries. At times he would speak to himself and say, "Yeh achha delivery thaa. Yeh shot mujhe waaha nahi yehaan marna chhiye thaa (This was a good shot. I should not have played this shot in that area)," Sikkim skipper Le Yong Lepcha told PTI.
Rohit had two partnership, one that yielded 141 runs for the opening stand with Angkrish Raghuvansi (38 of 56 balls) and another 75 with debutant Musheer Khan (27).
Abhishek contributes 48 in Punjab's win
Skipper Abhishek Sharma contributed 48 off 45 balls but it was Naman Dhir who stole the show with a fine 97 off 78 balls as Punjab beat Maharashtra by 51 runs in another group league game.
Punjab scored 347 for six largely due to contribution from Dhir along with Singh cousins -- Anmolpreet (85 off 78 balls) and Prabhsimran (60 off 77 balls).
In reply, Maharashtra managed 296 for 8 with skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (1) enduring a rare failure.
Brief Scores
Sikkim 236/7 in 50 overs (Ashish Thapa 79, Shardul Thakur 2/19).
Mumbai 237/2 in 30.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 155).
Mumbai won by 8 wickets.
Punjab 347/6 in 50 overs (Naman Dhir 97, Anmolpreet Singh 85, Prabhsimran Singh 60).
Maharashtra 296/8 in 50 overs (Prithvi Shaw 47, Ramakrishna Ghosh 73, SS Bajwa 2/36).
Punjab won by 51 runs.
Chattisgarh 233 in 48.5 (Amandeep Khare 76, Deepraj Gaonkar 4/35).
Goa 234/4 in 44.1 overs (Snehal Kauthankar 107 no, Lalit Yadav 43).
Goa won by 6 wickets.
Himachal Pradesh 259 in 47.3 overs (Innesh Mahajan 60, DS Bora 4/44).
Uttarakhand 164 in 40.3 overs (Aanjaneya Suryavanshi 55, J Sucheeth 51, Akash Vashist 3/30).
Himachal Pradesh won by 95 runs.
