Panchayat poll no easy ride for Congress

Party sources including senior leaders agree that Congress will certainly find it difficult to secure control of panchayats in Udupi and DK districts thanks to the infighting, negligence shown towards strengthening the party and failure of ministers and MLAs to reach out to the people.

“Panchayat election will surely be tough for the Congress. Not only have we failed in taking our programmes to the people but we have failed miserably in organising the party,” a senior Congress leader told Deccan Chronicle.

“When BJP has already started preparations for the panchayat elections, our leaders are mum. We have not had any meeting, discussions or strategy to chalk out our plan to win the election. The party organisation has failed miserably in the region. Party is not taking any steps to convey government programmes to the people,” he said.

He stated that party leaders and elected representatives have not taken any measures despite losses in the Parliament elections. “We feel panchayat elections will be a continuation of the Parliament poll trend. Even after the defeat in parliament elections, our leaders failed to introspect. There are no corrective measures to strengthen the party,” he said.

A former DCC office bearer agrees and says that Ministers and MLAs have failed to strengthen the party in the coastal belt.“The infighting between ministers will surely harm the party. Workers complain that ministers neglect the party cadre after coming to power. Workers who had toiled during the assembly elections feel neglected as the appointment to district and taluk level committees and boards have not been done though two years of the government are over.