Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be having a breakfast meeting with the Council of Ministers from Karnataka on July 19 to discuss preparation for the Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Gandhi will be in Bengaluru as part of the meeting of the Opposition parties scheduled for July 17 and July 18.
Party sources said that with the Lok Sabha elections less than a year away, the Congress is focussing on a good performance from Karnataka. “In that light, he will speak to Ministers urging them to perform well over the next year to bring a good name to the government.”
Sources said that besides the Lok Sabha election preparation, several issues are likely to come up for discussion, including appointment of OSDs, who had served with Ministers in the BJP government.
The meeting will be attended by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Congress president M. Mallikarjun Kharge, and other senior party leaders, including K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.
Meanwhile, the Congress Legislature Party meeting has been convened on July 19 to sort out issues that the legislators had with Ministers during the previous CLP meeting.
Party sources said the meeting has been convened on the same day that Mr. Gandhi will be meeting the Council of Ministers in the morning. “In the last CLP meeting, legislators had expressed their anger over their work not being done by the Ministers. It is likely that the issue might come up again and could see some resolution.” The legislators will be briefed about the meeting with Mr. Gandhi, sources said.
The CLP will be chaired by Mr. Siddaramaiah, and Mr. Kharge, Mr. Shivakumar, and Leader of the House in the Legislative Council N.S. Boseraju, besides all the working president of the KPCC, will be present.
