KPCC names new working presidents, committee heads

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The five working presidents of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) were replaced on Saturday.

Moreover, three new faces head the KPCC campaign committee for the general elections.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) made the announcement in the lead up to the Lok Sabha elections which begin on April 19. Karnataka will go to polls in two phases on April 26 and May 7.

The new KPCC working presidents are Congress MLA from Narasimharaja Tanveer Sait, party Rajya Sabha MP GC Chandrashekhar, Dharwad Rural MLA Vinay Kulkarni, MLC Manjunath Bhandary and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge aide Vasanth Kumar.

The KPCC campaign committee is headed by former minister Vinay Kumar Sorake in his capacity as chairman, Rajya Sabha MP L Hanumanthaiah will be the co-chairman and Congress MLA from Shivajinagar Rizwan Arshad will be the vice chairman.

Ministers, others on way out

All five of the previous KPCC working presidents have been replaced because of many of them being a part of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet and the party wanted office bearers with a singular focus for the posts.

As many as three of them are ministers: Ramalinga Reddy (Transport), Eshwar Khandre (Forests) and Satish Jarkiholi (Public Works).

The other two were Saleem Ahmed and BN Chandrappa. Moreover, Chandrappa is the party’s Chitradurga candidate.

The previous KPCC campaign committee chairman MB Patil is the Minister for Large and Small Scale Industries. The Congress has also taken caste and community calculations into account before appointing the new KPCC working presidents.

Tanveer Sait is a Muslim. GC Chandrashekhar is a Vokkaliga. Vinay Kulkarni is a Panchamasali Lingayat. Previous KPCC working presidents had also ensured representation for different communities.

Siddaramaiah had lobbied for the inclusion of the now KPCC campaign committee chairman Sorake in the working presidents list. Sorake comes from the Ediga caste.

It is being said that Sorake, a Siddaramaiah loyalist, can now counter fellow Ediga and MLC BK Hariprasad who has berated the CM publically on multiple occasions. In other words, the CM has ensured Ediga representation that is friendly to him.

District in-charge additional role

KPCC working presidents have been given additional responsibilities of being in-charges of several districts on the eve of the general elections.

GC Chandrashekar is in-charge of mostly old Mysuru districts including Bengaluru Urban and Rural, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Ramanagara, Tumakuru, Chitradurga and Davangere, besides being in-charge of the Karnataka unit of the National Students Union of India (NSUI).

Tanveer Sait will be in-charge of districts such as Mysuru, Chamarajanagara, Mandya, Hassan and Kodagu, besides heading the state’s minority wing and Seva Dal units.

Vinay Kulkarni will be in-charge of north Karnataka districts such as Belagavi, Bagalkote, Vijayapura, Gadag, Haveri and Dharwad. Manjunath Bhandary will be incharge of coastal Karnataka districts such as Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, the state youth and women’s wings of the Congress.

Vasanth Kumar is in-charge of Hyderabad-Karnataka districts such as Bidar, Raichur, Ballari, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Koppal, Vijayanagara and the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) and workers’ wing.