Why are you not visiting rain hit areas in city: KC Venugopal to Bengaluru MLAs

Bengaluru: Ruling party legislators elected from various constituencies in Bengaluru earned the wrath of Congress general secretary incharge of Karnataka, K.C. Venugopal, on Friday for not touring rain ravaged areas of the city to address the woes of residents.

Mr Venugopal, who reviewed the damage wrought by the torrential rains in the city and visits of local legislators to the affected areas, pulled up MLAs for not reaching out to people particularly at a time when the party had launched Mane-Manege Congress Nadige programme across the state. While it was a success in rural areas, leaders in urban areas were not zealously participating in it, much to the chagrin of the leader.

“Mane-Manege Congress Nadige is not about visiting people when they are happy but to visit them when they are truly in distress. My intention of launching this programme in Mahadevpura constituency was not only for photo-op but to reach out to voters ahead of next year's Assembly polls,” sources in the party quoted Mr Venugopal as telling the legislators at a meeting in the party office.

He also reportedly pulled up leaders and MLAs for failing to constitute booth level committees in their respective constituencies and MLAs failing to make use of social media sites.

Sources said Mr Venugopal reportedly said that if “Mane-Manege...” was not taken seriously now when it was raining heavily and people were looking forward to support from the government, BJP leaders would make best use of it.