After having registered  victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, BJP chief Amit Shah will visit Karnataka on December 31 to review the party’s  readiness for the 2018 polls.  Ami Shah is keen to wrest power  in the Congress-ruled state which faces assembly polls in the first half of next year.

As per the echedule of the BJP President , during the visit Shah is expected to hold a meeting of legislators and MPs and of party’s core committee. The unscheduled visit comes in the backdrop of BJP’s Karnataka unit and the ruling Congress blaming each other on the deadlock over getting Mahadayi river water from neighbouring Goa to the four drought-hit districts in the state’s northern region. Goa is ruled by the BJP.

The stand off between  Karnataka and Goa has escalated into a full fledged war. The statement by Goa Chief minister Manohar parrikar on Friday , stoked the fire with Parrikar saying he doesn’t trust those in power in Karnataka. The  77km-long Mahadayi or Mandovi river originates at Bhimgad in the Western Ghats in Belagavi district of north-west Karnataka and flows into the neighbouring Goa and eventually joins the Arabian Sea.

Karnataka has been asking Goa since 2001 to release 7.6 thousand million cubic feet of the river water to meet the drinking needs of its people in Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag, Bagalkote and Belagavi districts and irrigating their farmlands. A demand which has seen several agitations , given the firm stance of the Goa government of refusing to  share waters. In a high drama last week , farmers had protested in front of BJP headquarters in  Bengaluru demanding resolution of the crisis.

During the visit BJP President Amit Shah is likely to take stock of the party’s poll readiness and how it plans to do damage control in North Karnataka. Sources indicate that BJP is willing to sacrifice a small state Goa to wrest control in Karnataka, the last big bastion of the Congress.

The party President is also expected to take note of  the impact of the controversial comments by Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde on changing constitution on the OBC and Dalit voters whom the party is making efforts to woo aggressively.