Rahul Gandhi calls on Congress leaders to unite, win 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls

Rahul, Shah tell their parties to cross the 150-seat mark in Assembly polls
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with former CM Siddaramaiah and KPCC chief D K Shivakumar at a meeting in Bengaluru on Friday | Nagaraja Gadekal
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with former CM Siddaramaiah and KPCC chief D K Shivakumar at a meeting in Bengaluru on Friday | Nagaraja Gadekal

BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader and former AICC president, Rahul Gandhi, on Friday set a target for the Congress in Karnataka of winning “not less than 150 seats” in the 224-member assembly in the upcoming polls. He has asked the party’s senior leaders to work unitedly to achieve the goal of bringing Congress back to power in Karnataka, which he referred to as a “natural Congress state”.

Speaking to party leaders, he said, “Karnataka is a natural Congress state. It will not be difficult to win 150 seats in the upcoming assembly elections if all the leaders work together. So the Congress should not win even one seat less than 150 seats in the upcoming elections.”

In a hint that could not be missed at being targeted at the apparent disunited functioning of the senior Congress leaders in the state, Gandhi said Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, KPCC President DK Shivakumar and Opposition Leader in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge have to work together, and added that the party needs to fight with the right strategy.

BJP govt most corrupt: Rahul

Gandhi referred to the BJP government in Karnataka as “an immoral government” formed by the “power of money”, and said the government in Karnataka is the most corrupt government in the country. “And it is not us who are saying that it is a ‘40 per cent government’, it is the Contractors’ Association which is saying this,” he said, stressing that it would be an irony if Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Karnataka and spoke about tackling corruption.

Referring to unemployment, Gandhi said the present BJP government cannot provide employment to people at any cost because it has destroyed small and medium scale industries which are capable of providing employment. “Today’s India is not able to provide employment to its youth. This is a loss to the country and will pose a danger in the future.

The BJP will never talk about these issues. The BJP’s intention is to take away the money from the poor and give it to a few big businessmen,” he charged. He blamed the BJP for bringing conflict among religious communities and castes. “If the BJP is seeking to break society, the work of the Congress is to build the society,” he said.

Param shares stage with Shah
Former DyCM G Parameshwara gave the brainstorming session with Rahul Gandhi a miss, instead sharing the stage with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Tumakuru

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