Karnataka - Bangalore

State Congress to look into Assembly poll debacle

D.K. Shivakumar

Bangalore: Continuing the revamping process in the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, which took a severe drubbing during the recent Legislative Assembly elections, its working president D.K. Shivakumar on Wednesday announced the constitution of a fact-finding committee to go into the reasons for the debacle and to identify the persons responsible in all the Assembly constituencies.

Addressing presspersons, Mr. Shivakumar said that the KPCC, which had expected to win majority in the Assembly, won just 80 seats and 36 per cent of the votes polled. Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who held the position of the KPCC president during the elections, had alleged that Congress leaders and workers wrecked the winning chances of the candidates.

He said the committee would appoint two-member teams for each constituency to collect information from the local leaders and workers on the reasons for the defeat of the official candidates. He said that voters belonging to different castes such as Vokkaligas, Lingayats, Kurubas and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Ttribes were found drifting from the party and the teams would asses what prompted them to take such course.

A meeting of the defeated candidates would be convened on November 5, which would be attended by the MPs and office-bearers of the KPCC. Asked whether disciplinary action would be initiated against those who had allegedly worked against the official nominees, Mr. Shivakumar said that if they admitted their mistake and agree to mend their ways, they would be excused and allowed to correct themselves.

He said that there was a generation gap in the party rank and file and it needed a mix of seniors and youngsters who could work with dedication and take the party to the doorsteps of the people. Asked whether the revamp would result in exodus of the party workers to other parties, he said the Congress had an inherent capacity to rejuvenate and regain its strength.

Mr. Shivakumar said that the party would have a new set of office-bearers, but did not say when they would be appointed. With a view to giving impetus to the lowest unit, he said that all the major events — functions and agitations — would be launched at the block level. As a beginning, the death anniversary of the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would be observed at Yelahanka.

The Congress MLAs and MLCs have been asked to provide information whether the Government was spending the legislators’ area development fund and whether there was any discrimination in taking up development activities in the areas represented by the Congress. The committee would also probe how some MLAs could get very less votes in spite of their popularity.

Mr. Shivakumar said that he would work in tandem with the KPCC president R.V. Deshpande and work according to his directions. There was no question competing with him and all that he would do was to build the party by winning back people, including his detractors, and those who had left the Congress. He declined to comment on the talk of electoral alliance or how the party would fight the “Operation Kamala” launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu