Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has given the team appointed to plan and oversee the party’s campaign in Karnataka complete autonomy.
But, along with that, he has given them a warning: he will hold them accountable for the results.
At a meeting lasting an hour and a half on Tuesday, Mr. Gandhi told team members that while he would be available for consultations and advice, they need not necessarily follow that advice, if it went contrary to what they thought would be good for the party.
As the Congress prepares for a slew of elections — Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year, and then Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka apart from the four north-eastern States of Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland next year — Mr. Gandhi is clearly now trying to experiment not with just new faces but is also trying to decentralise decision-making.
Siddaramaiah to stay
With Karnataka, one of the only two major States with the Congress (the other is Punjab), the party is banking on its new team to ensure that it retains the southern State.
So while Mr. Gandhi indicated that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who steered the party to victory earlier this year in the two byelections in the Nanjangud and Gundlupet Assembly constituencies, would remain the face of the party, it will be the team’s task to choose the new Pradesh Congress Chief and work out other details of the campaign and strategy.
A senior party source said incumbent president G. Parameshwara, who has completed two terms in office, could be replaced as he is the State Home Minister as well. But it is only after the new team goes to Karnataka that it will be able to decide whether to continue with Mr. Parameshwara, a Dalit, or look for a leader from the more dominant Vokkaliga or Lingayat communities. “The criteria will be who can deliver the most,” a senior leader said.
The newly appointed general secretary for the State is party MP K.C. Venugopal. He is to be assisted by AICC secretaries Manicka Tagore, Madhu Yashki Goud, P.C. Vishnunadh and Sake Sailajanath.
Meeting with leaders
The team has already swung into action: it has met general secretary Digvijaya Singh who was in charge of the State till Saturday, for a briefing on the current situation in the State as well as the mood in the party unit. They are also meeting, by turns, senior State leaders including Leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge, party MP Veerappa Moily, general secretary B.K. Hariprasad and senior leader Oscar Feranades.
On whether the Congress should have an electoral understanding with the Janata Dal-Secular, a senior party leader said, “The mood in the State unit is to go it alone. But things will become clearer after the team visits Karnataka.