Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah on Thursday claimed that there was a “Congress wave” in the State and the party has a strong chance of coming to power in the State in 2023.
Addressing party workers at the Navsankalp Chintan Shibir here, he said the Congress victory in the recently held Council elections from the South Graduates’ constituency is an indication to the “growing acceptance of the party by the electorate”. The JD(S), which had won the seat in the last election, has been pushed to the third place in the election covering Mysuru, Mandya, Chamaajnagar and Hassan districts. Because of the “Congress wave”, the party won in the election., he argued.
The one-day Navsankalp Chintan Shibir has been organised by the Mysuru city and District Congress Committee.
Mr. Siddaramaiah called upon the party workers and the leaders to work hard for bringing the party to power in 2023. “Unity has to be the strength of the Congress and all of us must fight to win all 11 Assembly seats in the elections in the district next year. For this, we need to work from today onwards and tell the electorate the programmes and schemes that the Congress government led by him had introduced,” he said.
Winning the polls next year is possible only when you put up good efforts in reaching out to the voters, he told the gathering.
The former CM said seven sub-committees have been constituted to elicit views from the party workers and leaders from the region, ahead of preparing for the next year’s elections.
The sub-committees include social justice; agriculture and farmer; party organisation and challenges; students, youth, education and employment; women’s empowerment; cooperation and labour; Mysuru city and tourism – overall development.
“Your views will be heard and forwarded to the respective committees which in turn will forward the same to the KPCC and later to the AICC. Your views ahead of the polls hold value and therefore you must submit them discussing amongst yourselves at the shibir,” Mr. Siddaramaiah told the participants.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said he would listen to all the views shared in the shibir and also make his comment about them at the valedictory. Resolutions will be passed after the sub-committees submit their reports.
“I want all of you to remain in the shibir for the group photo. I’ll be here for the photo session with all the groups and sub-committees.”
Former Ministers H.C. Mahadevappa, Tanveer Sait; KPCC working president Dhruvanarayan; MLAs Yathindra, Anil Chikkamadu, H.P. Manjunath, MLAs; Thimmaiah, MLC; KPCC Mahila Congress president Pushpa Amarnath and others were present.
Earlier, speaking to reporters, Mr. Siddaramaiah lashed out at the BJP for allegedly trying to topple the Maharashtra Government through “Operation Lotus”. “The practice of toppling governments that the BJP started in Karnataka is spreading across the country. The anti-defection law must be strengthened to stop this practice. A person elected from a party should not go to another party. If he or she defects, then such persons should be barred from contesting the elections for the next 10 years. This is much needed for saving democracy,” he argued.
