Win back confidence of all, don’t just focus on a few sections: Congress leaders

Bengaluru: A large section of Congress leaders including KPCC working president Eshwar Khandre feel the state Congress should take concrete steps to win back the confidence of all communities instead of focusing on only a section of society following the disastrous show in the Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader said the Congress had earlier made a blunder by replacing Lingayat strongman late Veerendra Patil way back in the late 1980s with a backward class leader. “Upper castes like Lingayats, Bunts, Brahmins and Vokkaligas abandoned the Congress for various reasons but not to this extent. Along with these communities, even a large portion of the backward classes such as Kurubas, Yadavas, Kolis, fishermen and weavers (Uppars) too have started deserting us. The Madigas, Banjaras and Bhovis among Dalits are upset with us and so are the Scheduled Tribes comprising of 58 sub-castes. We need to find solution to bring all these communities back to the party fold,” the leader explained.

The leader further added that post 2013, the party went overboard trying to label every scheme which was brought out by the Congress government as an AHINDA scheme. Though then CM Siddaramaiah asserted that many of his schemes were intended to help the poor of in all communities, the argument did not cut much ice with voters. Thus the Congress was not neither able to draw its traditional voters nor could it convince the upper castes. Hence, it has become all the more important for the party to reassess its failures and set its house in order, the source explained.

Meanwhile, seven-time Congress MP, K.H. Muniyappa is learnt to have expressed serious displeasure over the formation of a KPCC fact-finding committee headed by former chairman of the Legislative Council, V.R. Sudarshan. Mr Muniyappa reportedly asked AICC general secretary, K.C. Venugopal how anyone could trust the fact finding committee whose members included some who played a role in defeating him? The source added that Mr Muniyappa was hinting at Mr V.R. Sudarshan and Mr Naseer Ahmed who are part of the committee.