After filling several vacancies in the party organisation, Congress has now commenced an exercise to identify local issues in each Legislative Assembly constituency to strategise the party's campaign in the coming days and maximise the party's victory in the 2023 Assembly elections.
Surjewala in State
Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, who has decided to spend maximum number of days in the State till the next elections, has already held a series of meetings with leaders and office-bearers of the party of Davangere, Chitradurga, Bengaluru Central, South and North constituencies to map out issues.
The KPCC has called a meeting of newly appointed 40 party vice-presidents and 109 general secretaries on Wednesday and Thursday to explain their role and responsibilities and fine-tune the party's poll strategy.
KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and his counterpart in the council B.K. Hariprasad would attend the meeting for two days. Mr. Surjewala is expected to attend the meeting on Thursday.
Sources in the party told The Hindu that Mr. Surjewala and Mr. Shivakumar have decided to select candidates based on local issues such as caste, sub-caste, development work, strength of the Opposition parties (BJP and JD-S), incumbent legislator's rapport with the electorate and gram panchayat members, role of new entrants to the party and vote bank of minorities.
While the party would consider the past electoral record or support in the constituency, the present record of the candidate in terms enrolment of new member to the party, participation in the protests against the BJP Government's policies, presence in social media, and rapport with the local media too would be given weightage while selecting the candidates. The party has been identifying challenges in each constituency to counter the Opposition, sources said.
Not ‘from the top’
Unlike in the past, the party has decided not to field candidates “dropped from the top” at the instructions of the Central leaders of the party or high command, sources said.
To ensure adequate preparation of each candidate for facing the elections, the party has decided to select candidates six months in advance. Apparently, many senior leaders have suggested to the party high command that campaign strategy would be fine-tuned in advance by early selection of candidates backed up with sufficient financial resources.
The party has roped in a poll strategy team to plan the campaign. According to sources, the party would launch the first phase of its intensive campaign, largely focusing on social media in June and the second phase with outdoor campaign in October.
