KPCC to launch massive campaign in February

Bengaluru: All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Karnataka in-charge K.C. Venugopal on Tuesday announced a massive campaign programme to strengthen Congress at grassroot level in Karnataka.

“I have to congratulate the KPCC for organising a meet for all block and district presidents. It is for the first time KPCC organising such a meeting,’’ Venugopal said.He said all Congress leaders, including MLAs, KPCC president, and Chief Minister, have to supervise the polling booth where they cast votes. “Each Congress leader has to take up the responsibility of supervising the polling booth,’’ he said.

Elaborating on the campaign in Karnataka, the AICC general secretary said meetings would be organised at gram panchayat level from February 1 to 15 and leaders of sub-groups at polling booth level would meet voters between February 15 and March 1. The process would be completed by the second week of March.

“Senior Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwara, will travel in a bus from March 1 to 20 seeking support from the public for Congress in the forthcoming Assembly elections,’’ he said.

Denying rumours on differences between Congress leaders and Satish Jarkiholi, the AICC general secretary said Satish Jarkiholi is one of the strongest Congress leaders in Karnataka. “There is no need to give too much importance to my meeting with him. As a general secretary, I am assigned to meet all Congress leaders,’’ he said.

Coming down heavily on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders for trying to create problems in society, the AICC general secretary has said the BJP leaders have no other agenda than dividing society.Earlier, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dr G Parameshwara said Congress president Rahul Gandhi will visit Karnataka for three days from February 10 to 12.

“Rahul Gandhi will address a public meeting on February 10 at Hospet and later visit Koppal, Yadgiri and Raichur. All senior Congress leaders will accompany Rahul Gandhi,’’ Dr Parameshwara said.The KPCC president has said around 440 out of 452 office-bearers of Congress have attended the meeting on Tuesday to discuss various issues such as supervising electronic voting machines (EVMs) on the polling day, strengthening Congress at the grassroot level and taking responsibility of polling booths.

“We have completed constituting 54,000 booth-level committees. There are 57,000 polling booths in the state. We will complete constituting the remaining committees shortly,’’ he said.The KPCC president has said that instructions were given to Congress office-bearers to become net savvy. “We have directed the booth-level committees to collect data and send it to the KPCC. We have also told the office-bearers and Congress leaders to start using WhatsApp, Facebook and twitter,’’ he said.

Blaming the BJP leaders for raking up silly issues, the KPCC president has said the BJP leaders have no genuine issues. “BJP leaders, including B S Yeddyurappa, have not spoke about development of Karnataka during Parivartana Yatra. They did not mention Mahadayi river issue and poverty alleviation programme,’’ he said.