Siddaramaiah, KPCC chief to tour together

The development comes at that time when only a few months left for the assembly elections in Karnataka.

All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge has turned down the request of allowing former chief minister Siddaramaiah and state party chief DK Shivakumar to take out separate bus rallies, senior leaders directly in the know of the matter said on Wednesday.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge holds a meeting with the party leaders from Karnataka ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state. (PTI)

The development comes at that time when only a few months left for the assembly elections in Karnataka.

Despite efforts from the senior Congress leadership in Karnataka to convince the high command to allow separate rallies for the duo, Kharge has asked them “to take out a joint rally,” said one of the senior leaders quoted above, requesting not to be named.

Regarding the leadership issue, Kharge told the state party leaders that the matter “will be decided only after the party gets a majority in the assembly polls” , said another leader.

Following the meeting on Monday, AICC general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala had told the media that the joint yatra will be embarked upon after a series of rallies. The schedule for the joint yatra will be prepared by Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, he had said.

Sharing details of the meeting, Siddaramaiah, however, said, “The joint rally will take place only in the initial phase of the rally”. He said that in the first phase of the joint rally, both leaders will cover 20 district headquarters via the bus yatra in south Karnataka. “Later, we will form two separate teams, one led by me and another by Shivakumar, to cover the remaining constituencies with different leaders with us so that we can cover the entire state,” he confirmed the decision.

DK Shivakumar or his office has not issued any statements on the Siddaramaiah’s comments.

According to a senior party leader, as per the initial plan, the bus tour led by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar and Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah was to be carried out separately, similar to the party’s ‘Panchjanya Yatra’ (held in 1999) during which the Congress leaders led by the then KPCC president S M Krishna travelled in buses.

“The reason why the yatra was divided between the two leaders is due to time constraints. Covering all 224 assembly seats will take time. Since we have two tall leaders in the party, they could send the party’s message strongly if they divided the task between them. But we realised that this could be used by the Opposition to show that both leaders are not together,” said a leader who didn’t want to be named.

KPCC spokesperson Priyank Kharge said that the senior leaders of the party led by AICC Karnataka in-charge, Surjewala, held talks with senior leaders regarding the issues following which the decision was taken.

Meanwhile, the KPCC has asked the central leaders to release a list of 150 candidates shortly so that they could prepare the ground for elections. “A total of 1,300 applications have been received for 224 assembly constituencies...we are shortlisting the named. An election committee will be formed today (Wednesday). We are going to send the applications to districts to get a report from block presidents, and later the names will be screened,” said KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed.

In the meeting chaired by Kharge, on Monday, a detailed road map of the Congress campaign has been finalised, said Surjewala.

“Kharge has been holding deliberations on electoral preparedness with several leaders from different districts (of Karnataka) including legislators, members of Parliament and senior colleagues. Even today (Monday), a meeting was held. We have now decided on an extensive roadmap for championing people’s voices against the corrupt 40% government led by (chief minister Basavaraj) Bommai,” said Surjewala after the meeting.

“We have decided to hold an extensive programme over the next 75 days. While the assembly session will be in Karnataka, we have decided to hold a huge convention. Bharatiya Janata Party has betrayed the people of Vijayapura and other parts of the (north Karnataka) region on the issue of irrigation and drinking water from river Krishna. On December 30, this convention and a rally will be held in Vijayapura,” he said.

Surjewala further added that on January 2, a programme will be held to announce the party’s road map to resolve the Mahadayi water dispute with Goa. This rally will be held in the Hubballi district. The Congress will also hold a rally for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities in Chitradurga on January 8. “Similarly, there will be a convention for the Backward Caste communities. Finally, in the first week of January we will be doing a joint yatra, which covers all district head quarters and all 224 constituencies within 45-50 days,” he added.

Responding to Siddaramaiah’s statement, Karnataka BJP’s official handle tweeted: “While the country is taking strides towards development with a double-engine government, Congress is gearing up for a double-steering bus journey. @DKShivakumar and @siddaramaiah, both are taking the steering wheel and pushing and @kharge into a corner. It is guaranteed that this bus journey will be punctured.”