Journalism of Courage
Bullish after its triumph in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress on Monday decided to hit the ground running in Karnataka by the end of the month. The party announced a 75-day roadmap to kickstart its campaign to defeat the BJP in the Assembly elections next year.
Besides organising massive conventions during the 75-day period, the first leg of its campaign, the Congress will embark on a yatra covering all 224 Assembly constituencies.
The focus, besides projecting a united Congress and reaching out to Dalits and backward classes, is on raising the issue of water, an emotive subject in the state engaged in long-pending disputes with states over the sharing of river water.
The Congress’s announcement of a roadmap came after party chief Mallikarjun Kharge held a meeting with the top state unit leaders in New Delhi.
Among those present were former CM Siddaramaiah, state Congress president D K Shivakumar, campaign committee chief M B Patil, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council B K Hariprasad, CWC member K H Muniyappa and former Deputy CM G Parameshwara.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, who was also present at the meeting, said the first event of the marathon programme would be held on December 30 in north Karnataka’s Vijayapura district where the party will highlight “how the BJP betrayed the entire region over usage of Krishna waters”.
“A state-wide yatra which will cover all 224 Assembly constituencies and touch all districts will begin in the first half of January,” Surjewala added.
Sources said the Yatra could initially be a bus tour by senior leaders together to showcase unity, particularly between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. It will be followed by separate yatras, each led by three to four senior leaders, the sources said.
KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed told The Indian Express the state-wide yatra will be along the lines of the Panchajanya Yatra of former Karnataka CM S M Krishna in the late 1990s.
At a rally in Hubli on January 2, the party plans to raise the Mahadayi river project issue, a bone of contention between Karnataka and Goa.
“Modi used to say earlier that the issue is not being sorted despite the Congress being in power in both Goa and Karnataka. Now the BJP is in power at the Centre and both in Karnataka and Goa, not double but triple engine. Despite that they could not sort it out” Hariprasad said.
The party will organise a SC/ST convention in Chitradurga on January 8 in an attempt to mobilise the Dalit and the tribal communities. It will be attended by Kharge and the state leadership is keen that either Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too take part. A backward class convention is also being planned.
Asked about who the party’s Chief Ministerial face will be, Surjewala referred to the Mahabharata story about Arjuna piercing the eye of a fish. “We are only focusing on Karnataka’s progress and not posts. The party is bigger than the posts.”
