Bengaluru: If Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to address a rally in Bengaluru on Sunday, fails to give an assurance of his intervention to resolve the Mahadayi river water dispute, the city is set to have one more bandh on February 4.

Kannada Chaluvali leader Vatal Nagaraj, who heads the Kannada Okkoota, on Wednesday, said the proposed bandh would be called off if the Prime Minister gives an assurance in the coming days on resolving the Mahadayi issue. “Else, we will be forced to greet him with a bandh in Bengaluru,” Nagaraj said.

He said the situation is such that these repeated bandhs are needed to send a message. Farmers in north Karnataka are in dire straits and they are in support of the bandh. The okkoota claims support of over 2,000 pro-Kannada organisations.

He has expressed disappointment over BJP president Amit Shah, who was in the State during the previous bandh on January 25, for not mentioning the Mahadayi water dispute.