Congress in election mode

Parameshwara, Siddaramaiah to meet high command soon

AICC General Secretary and State in-charge Digvijay Singh having a word with president of KPCC G. Parameshwara during the General Body Meeting of KPCC at Palace Grounds in Bangalore on July 02, 2013. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

The Congress, obviously in the best of form having won the Legislative Assembly elections in May leading to the formation of the party government after nine years in the State, is gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee G. Parameshwara, armed with a detailed report prepared by KPCC observers, will go to New Delhi shortly to present a picture of the likely candidates who could be fielded for the Lok Sabha elections.

There are nearly 20 aspirants each in some of the constituencies and it is going to be a herculean task for the high command to choose the right candidate.

Sources in the party told

The Hindu that the high command has conveyed to leaders here that it is looking forward to a splendid performance from the State unit, and also that they should work to win a majority of the seats.

The subject has ostensibly come to the fore as the high command is still in a fire-fighting mode in Andhra Pradesh where it won a majority of the seats in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009.

The State unit of the Congress has seriously begun preparing for the Lok Sabha elections, though there is no definite indication of the dates.

Teams of party observers have covered all Legislative Assembly segments in the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies and are in the process of finalising their reports.

The reports along with that submitted by the block and district-level committees of the KPCC will be vetted by the KPCC president and the Chief Minister before the two leave for New Delhi for consultations with the high command. Prior to the Assembly elections, the AICC too had sent a team of leaders apart from appointing an agency to shortlist the candidates for both the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections.

It should be noted that police intelligence too informally provides certain information to the high command during the process of finalising candidates.

The sources said that the early start is clearly aimed at ensuring that the right candidates are chosen and, simultaneously, the party machinery remains well-oiled.

Further, the exercise will help the party remain focussed on the next big task facing it rather than getting stuck with internal squabbles as many heavyweights in the State unit have been relegated to the background for various reasons.

Fortunately for the Congress, the rumblings over denial of ministerial berths did not blow up on its face, though there have been calls by a section in the State unit for appointing some of their leaders as Ministers. The KPCC president and party leader D.K. Shivakumar, who recently ensured victory for the party in the byelections to the Kanakapura seat (won by his brother D.K. Suresh), are in the reckoning.