Karnataka assembly polls: Ticket only for local Congmen, says Rahul Gandhi

Bengaluru: Ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, now less than  a year away, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi did his best to boost the morale of party workers declaring unequivocally that the Congress will not ‘para-drop’ any leader from outside and will identify local leaders to contest the elections.

Speaking at the KPCC’s extended general-body meeting here, Mr Gandhi said, “I have already directed the AICC team headed by K.C. Venugopal (party general secretary) to identify and nurture local leaders instead of bringing leaders from outside at the last minute. We want leaders who like the Congress and believe in its philosophy.”

As for sitting legislators, he said he had sought a detailed report from the state unit on how many legislators attend the Assembly session and rise to defend the party on the floor of the House.

He also sent a clear signal to ministers to get their act together saying they need to communicate on every good scheme to get the message across to people.

“Let us not spend money like the BJP does for propagating their schemes, I do not believe in squandering people’s money. Instead, our ministers must campaign hard by travelling in their respective districts. The Chief Minister alone cannot do this, it needs a team effort,” he reasoned. The party should take everyone along, be it senior leaders or party workers, said Mr Gandhi. “Yes, I agree that everyone cannot be given power but all can be heard. The Congress is like a family, everyone must be heard and given a sense of belonging. I am happy that the AICC’s new team headed by Mr Venugopal is doing this job effectively,” he said. He added that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was the CM of every resident of Karnataka. “The people’s voice must be heard as this is not a single man’s government but a Congress government which believes in taking everyone along,” he stressed.

‘PM must start listening to Jan ki baat’
AICC vice-president, Rahul Gandhi’s speech was filled with tongue in cheek remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president, Amit Shah. The BJP chief had recently dubbed the Mahatma a ‘chatur baniya.’

Addressing the KPCC meeting here, Mr Gandhi said the whole world knows who the Mahatma is. Gandhi had stood steadfast against the British while a few others were busy writing letters to the then colonial rulers (seeking pardon). “Everyone knows who went to jail and who were busy writing letters and seeking pardon from the British, let us not waste time reacting to such remarks,” he said in a veiled dig at the BJP-RSS.

Training his guns on the PM, Mr Gandhi quipped that the former speaks a lot but has miserably failed to deliver on his own promise of employment generation. “Unemployment is rising but he shies away from a healthy debate on the subject,” he said.

Making lengthy speeches on Man Ki Baat(a radio programme) will not help, instead Mr Modi should start listening to people’s untold miseries and he would perhaps be a good leader, the Congress leader said.

Siddu & Co vow to work unitedly for Cong win
Expressing their unstinted support for efforts to revive the Congress’ fortunes beginning from Karnataka, state Congress leaders led by CM Siddaramaiah on Monday assured the leadership that they would work unitedly to bring the party to power not only in the state in 2018 but also at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking at the KPCC general body meeting here, Mr Siddaramaiah said, “The party has given us a lot, it is our turn to give back not only in 2018 but also in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.”

Laying out his plans, Mr Siddaramaiah felt Congress workers need to send out a  strong message to stop the false propaganda by the BJP which is playing the Hindutva card. “Aren’t we in the Congress, Hindus? There are a lot more Hindus in Congress than in the BJP. We need to drive home point that Hindutva does not mean driving a wedge between communities, rather it is a uniting glue to bring everyone together. This is the best possible way to blunt their (BJP’s) sole card of Hindutva,” he said.

AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal said that being a Keralite and a staunch Congressman for the last five decades, it was always an overwhelming experience to hear that it was Karnataka which had given rebirth to the Congress on many occasions. The polls in 2018 was one such occasion and Karnataka should not miss it, he said.