K’taka Congress men chant ‘mantra’ of unity after meeting party leader Rahul Gandhi

PTI, Feb 25, 2022, 5:39 PM IST

Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress men chant ‘mantra’ of unity ahead of Assembly elections in the State next year. A day after a meeting Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar held a joint press meet in New Delhi on Friday and expressed confidence about Congress returning to power.

”There is one year for Assembly elections, there is a conducive atmosphere for Congress to come back to power because the current BJP government came to power through operation lotus, no developmental work has happened since then. The people are cursing the government,” said Siddaramaiah said.

He said Rahul Gandhi called for a meeting of senior Congress men in Karnataka to take stock of the political situation and discuss the strategy to win the election and come back to power.

”Rahul Gandhi has got the message that everyone in the party is working together in the State and that the party will come back to power… We all are working together, there are no differences. BJP is trying to project there are differences, that is not a fact. As we are a democratic party, there may be differences of opinion, that’s all,” he added.

Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with State Congress leaders is said to be aimed at sending out a message of collective leadership amid reports of political oneupmanship between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar as both have chief ministerial ambitions.

Stating that about 15 State Congress leaders met Rahul Gandhi in the presence of party general secretaries Randeep Singh Surjewala and K C Venugopal, Shivakumar said,”We’ve apprised him (Rahul) about political developments in Karnataka and party organisational matters. We have one year’s time and we have been asked to go before the people keeping in mind the national political developments, issues of the people of the State. Leaders have been asked to spend more time on the field. It is our duty to bring the party back to power and we have promised to work together,” he said.

He said the Congress’s ‘padayatra’ demanding implementation of the Mekedatu project would resume from Ramanagra on February 27 and conclude at the National College Grounds in Bengaluru on March 3. For the yatra, Shivakumar sought cooperation from the public and various organisations.

With limited options amid the surge in COVID cases, the government prohibiting movement of people and the High Court’s observations, the Congress halted the yatra mid-way in January.