Amid a covert infighting between camps in the Congress here, the Central leadership has summoned senior party leaders from the State on February 25 for a meeting to discuss and prepare a strategy for the Assembly elections scheduled in early 2023.
Party sources said that the meeting to be chaired by Rahul Gandhi will have Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, KPCC campaign committee chairperson M.B. Patil, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council B.K. Hariprasad, and Leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge, among others. “The meeting is among the first ahead of the elections that will assess the ground situation and prepare roadmap for the future,” sources said.
Though the meeting is to discuss elections, the State leaders may be asked to coordinate and present an unified face. It also assumes importance in the light of simmering differences between Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar. Party insiders say that though both have put up an unified face in public, they have been disagreeing on the way forward for the party. I
Sources said that even in 2018, a similar meeting involving 17 leaders had been convened to impress upon them the need for unity. “Even during this meeting, it is likely that the Central leadership will speak about unity. Otherwise, a fractured party cannot win the elections. It is possible that certain issues that leaders have with others could come up for discussion since Mr. Gandhi is expected to have a one-on-one meeting with some top leaders. A group meeting is scheduled later.”
On Sunday, Mr. Shivakumar also said that meeting had been called to elicit opinion from different leaders, and that he had sought the meeting of all leaders for discussion. “We do not have much time for elections. We have to train our legislators and party workers.”
