“BJP-RSS workers are eliminating names of Congress voters from electoral rolls by fudging them,” All India Congress Committee secretary and Belagavi division in-charge Manicka Tagore said in Belagavi on Saturday. “That is because their booth-level agents connive with the registration officers and fudge records,” he alleged.
In 2008, the Election Commission of India brought in rules that say that the booth-level voter registration officer should work with the booth-level agents of all parties. While the BJP has appointed agents in all booths, Congress is yet to do it, he said.
“BJP’s agents move all the senior citizens or women who are Congress sympathisers out of the constituency. They are able to do this only because they have booth-level agents in all booths and they are working full time. We should stop this by appointing booth-level agents who are willing to work full time for the party,” Mr. Tagore said, speaking to party workers at the Sankam Hall. He set a deadline of one month for appointment of agents in all booths in the district.
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He asked leaders to form whatsapp groups of all agents and keep in touch with all levels of workers using social media handles. The most important thing is to tell the people about the achievements of the Congress government headed by Mr. Siddaramaiah, he said. “We have kept 118 of the 132 promises made in the election manifesto in Karnataka.”
He set another task for party workers - subscribing for National Herald , the New Delhi-based newspaper that is managed by the Congress party. He asked party workers to subscribe at least 500 copies of the paper in each town. He also asked workers to get more people to read it.
Later, Mr. Tagore told presspersons that the Congress would organise a week-long brainstorming session in Bengaluru to plan strategies for the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Leaders from all districts would be invited to the meeting where K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Mr. Siddaramaiah and other leaders will be present. This will help settle the differences among leaders at the block, district and other levels, he said. “We are aiming to win 44 out of the 56 seats in north Karnataka. We don’t believe in slogan politics. We will go to the people with progress report cards.”
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Mr Tagore said leaders like S.M. Krishna who had quit the Congress were bound to come back to the party fold. This has happened with leaders like S. Bangarappa earlier. That will happen again. That is because the BJP insults senior leaders, while Congress respects them, Mr. Tagore claimed. He said that committed leaders stayed in the party, only those leaders who were running after power were joining the BJP. In fact, those leaders who believe in a progressive ideology will leave other parties to join the Congress, he claimed. He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was meting out stepmotherly treatment to Karnataka and Kannadigas.
He ruled out major differences between party leaders in Belagavi. They are only differences of opinion, he said.
Ramesh Jarkiholi, district in-charge Minister, said that there were no major differences between him and his brother and former Minister Satish Jarkiholi. “But we will settle it. It will not affect the party,” he added.