HUBBALLI: Ahead of the 2013 Assembly election, the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the state Congress met here on Tuesday in the presence of party senior leader Rahul Gandhi, who was in the city to take part in Siddaramotsava, the 75th birthday celebration of CLP leader Siddaramaiah to be held in Davanagere on Wednesday.
The 35-member PAC was constituted recently following a decision taken at the Udaipur Chintan Baithak and it met for the first time after its formation. AICC General Secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal chaired the meeting of the committee, which has been formed to prepare the party for the election and chalk out the poll strategy.
After the meeting, Venugopal said, “We had a fruitful discussion for the 2023 elections. On every important issue, PAC meets frequently and takes collective decisions.”
He said Rahul appealed to the leaders to go aggressively against the misrule of the BJP governments in the state and Centre. The leaders were asked to stand united and fight against anti-people and anti-democratic policies of the Union and state governments.
“We have to work for the people and convince them that there will be a people-centric government in Karnataka. The party is chalking out programmes to address their concerns. All leaders opined that Congress should fight united against the BJP governments. The meeting decided to drive out the corrupt government in Karnataka in 2023,” he added.
He said, “The leaders were asked not to air different opinions inside or outside the party forum and not to discuss any internal issues in public.”
Asked whether the leaders were asked not to raise the leadership issue till the election campaign starts, he said, “There is no leadership issue... no talk on that at all. As per the party’s policy, the MLAs and the leadership will decide on it after winning the election,” he said.
Sources, aware of the meeting details, said that Venugopal expressed his displeasure over party leaders’ out-of-turn comments in public over the chief minister’s post and censured the leaders. Rahul, however, did not comment on the issue.
Senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, KH Muniyappa and AICC state in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala did not attend the meeting due to personal reasons. Except for them, the majority of the PAC members attended the deliberations.