BENGALURU: AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal is arriving on his first visit to the state on Monday after being appointed the party in-charge to galvanise the party for the 2018 poll battle. Venugopal is set to camp in the city for three days to finalise the ideal candidate to head KPCC.
Venugopal along with his team of AICC secretaries Vishnunath, Manik Thakur, Madhu Goud Yashki and Sake Sailaja Nath have a busy schedule for the three days to interact with every segment of state Congress leaders to ascertain their views on appointing the new KPCC president and also ensuring better co-ordination between the party and the government.
Venugopal is set to interact with state and district-level party office-bearers on May 8. This will be followed by meetings with Congress legislators, MPs and those who were defeated in the last Assembly and Lok Sabha election on May 9. He will chair the meeting of the state Congress co-ordination committee and have a separate meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on May 10.
He will submit a report to the Congress high command based on the opinion of the state leaders to select the new KPCC president. The high command will than take a final decision on the choice to head the state Congress.
Apart from the incumbent KPCC president G Parameshwara, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, Water Resources Minister M B Patil, former minister S R Patil and senior MP K H Muniyappa are in the race for the post.While Siddaramaiah is lobbying in favour of Patil to woo the strong Lingayat community, Shivakumar is lobbying hard for the post with an argument that his appointment to the post could draw the dominant Vokkaliga community towards the party, bringing big electoral gains.