Can Kannadigas follow Kiran's language?

The reports that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is going to campaign for the Congress party in the ongoing Karnataka elections has led to an interesting debate in the media and political circles.
According to party sources, Kiran will campaign in border areas of Karnataka-Andhra and try to attract voters by addressing a few public meetings and road shows in the first week of May. But one wonders whether Kiran would be able to impress the Karnataka voters, because of his language problem. Even now, Kiran is not able to impress the people of Andhra Pradesh with his speech, because he fumbles in every sentence while speaking in Telugu. Of course, he has improved his oratory skills in the last couple of years.
But in Karnataka, it is a different ball game. He cannot speak Kannada and is not fluent in Telugu. And if he speaks in English, it will not go down well into the people. He is also not comfortable speaking Hindu, though he claims he was born and brought up in Hyderabad. Moroever, Kiran is not a popular figure in Karnataka as he does not have the glamour or image in the public. So, it is doubtful whether he would be of any help to the party in the Karnataka elections.