Congress mane manege: Dr G Parameshwar to go on door to door campaign

Bengaluru: Encouraged by the success of the several “nadiges” or walkathons organised by the party ahead of the 2013 Assembly polls that saw it come to power in Karnataka, state Congress party chief Dr G. Parameshwar has decided to visit the party's electoral booth workers across the state Sunday onwards to bolster their morale in the run up to the 2018 poll .

Under the “Mane-Manege Congress Nadige,” programme he has set himself an ambitious task of visiting thousands of booths in the days leading up to the elections, according to sources.

“There are almost 66,000 booths across the state. Visiting all the booths and meeting the workers attached to them could be an onerous task. But he seems to believe that there is a possibility of converting a mass-based party like the Congress into cadre based party if leaders like him start visiting booths,” said a senior Congress leader, adding that Chief Minister Siddarmaiah, working KPCC presidents, S. R. Patil and Dinesh Gundurao and AICC secretaries and general secretaries could join the tour.

Dr Parameshwar will kick-start the first leg of his tour from Haveri-Gadag and Hubballi-Dharwad, where he will meet party workers over three days.

“The ultimate aim of this tour is to hold a massive booth level agents' rally, which will be addressed by AICC vice-president, Rahul Gandhi,” sources said.

The massive exercise is expected to provide Dr Parameshwar and Mr Siddaramaiah an opportunity to assess the party’s weaknesses and work on ways to strengthen it

“Their visit will also automatically enthuse party workers about the party's schemes and they will help it gain the momentum it needs in the months leading to the election," one leader explained.