MYSURU: Amid the ongoing churn in the political cauldron of Karnataka, ahead of the assembly elections in Karnataka scheduled next year, the Mysuru District Congress Committee, along with the Mysuru City Congress, on Thursday held a Chintan Shivir, the primary objective of which is to help win all the 11 assembly seats in the district. In the 2013 assembly elections, Congress owed its triumph in considerable part to its impressive performance in the Old Mysore region, and Mysuru district, in particular. However, in the 2018 polls, the party ceded much ground in Mysuru to the BJP and JD(S), and now appears intent on reclaiming the same.
The Nava Sankalp Chintan Shivir, held at Varkod on the outskirts of Mysuru city, was flagged off by former chief minister Siddaramaiah, local leaders were assigned specific responsibilities ahead of the polls. The participants conducted a ‘Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)’ analysis as well. The local leaders were exhorted to impress on the people the many initiatives that the party rolled out for the welfare of people when the Congress was at the helm of affairs.
The party is currently basking in the afterglow of the victory in the election to the South Graduates’ constituency in the legislative council. Now, workers at the grassroots have been asked to galvanise the public in favour of the Congress ahead of the assembly polls. The leaders stressed the participation of women in the campaign, more so in the rural pockets, so as to spread word about the Congress’ many initiatives rolled out for their welfare.
Siddaramaiah pointed to the need of emphasising the party’s commitment to inclusive development. He called on the workers to educate the voters about the various pro-people schemes that the government he led rolled out. Taking on the BJP-led central government, the former CM said that the ‘Agnipath’ scheme would only push unemployment further up. A four-year stint in the armed forces would not qualify youngsters as ex-servicemen, Siddaramaiah added.
Calling on the workers to ensure that the Congress won 10 of the 11 assembly seats in Mysuru district, Siddaramaiah exhorted them to work as a collective unit the way they had for the council elections. He pointed to the Chintan Shivir the Rajasthan unit of the party had held recently, wherein feedback from the local leaders had been relayed to the Congress high command.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president and former MP R Dhruvanarayana said that the party had started work on drafting its manifesto for the upcoming assembly elections.
KPCC vice-president Sudhindra, Sooraj Hegde, former minister and Narasimharaja MLA Tanveer Sait were among those involved in the drafting of the party manifesto, Dhruvanarayana said.
