Patch-up: Rahul talks to Siddu, Shivakumar

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT
Bengaluru

With a recent survey report conducted by reputed agencies indicating that the friction between Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar may wreck the party’s prospects in the 2023 Assembly polls, former AICC President Rahul Gandhi held a meeting at his Delhi residence with the two leaders on the strategies to be adopted to return to power in Karnataka.

The meeting was attended by AICC Organisational General Secretary K.C.Venugopal and AICC General Secretary & In-charge of Karnataka Affairs, Randeep Singh Surjewala. According to highly placed sources, Rahul discussed in detail the survey report that stressed on the need for unity among the two leaders.

As both of them are keen on the CM gaddi they have built their own coteries to do what their followers say. The survey has categorised the 224 seats into winnable seats, difficult seats and non-winnable seats.

While the winnable seats are in the range of 80-90, the difficult seats are in the range of 40-50 seats and the remaining are in the non-winnable category. The party is learnt to have discussed how to convert the difficult seats into winnable seats and the non-winnable seats to the difficult seat category to improve its prospects.

Sources said Gandhi wanted the duo to set aside their egos, and work with unanimity during the selection of candidates without considering any yardstick other than winnability. Another important issue discussed in the meeting was the early selection of candidates so that they could be informed to stay and work in their respective constituencies till the election.

The party wants to focus on the omissions and commissions of the BJP government in the State but is also keen on avoidng character assassination or personal attacks. S ince the BJP is expected to reach out to microscopic minority communities in society, the Congress is also planning to attract these communities and take them into confidence as every vote counts in the polls.

In 2018, the BJP did adopt this strategy and crossed the 100 seat mark but fell short of a simple majority to form the government on its own in the State. Sources said Siddaramaiah has told Gandhi that the agitations against the BJP government will be stepped up in the next five to six months to build up the poll tempo.

Governance has hit the nadir and this would be highlighted before the people. The failure of the BJP government in resolving the big mess in Bengaluru especially during the recent rains would also be brought up with Bengaluru leaders like R.Ramalinga Reddy, K.J.George and B.K.Hariprasad asked to hold agitations regularly on the crumbling infrastructure in the state capital.

It is learnt that Rahul has advised state leaders to re-activate the Social Media Cell in order to highlight the failures of the BJP government in social media thanks to its reach among educated voters in cities.