BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, also KPCC president, on the eve of his visit to New Delhi, where he is likely to meet Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday, proved himself to be quite a task master on Monday.
Giving a pep talk to 86 Congress candidates who were defeated in the 2023 Assembly polls, he advised them to gear up for the upcoming polls to local bodies, help set up Congress Bhavans in their assembly constituencies and get rewarded with the party ticket for the 2028 Assembly polls.
Shivakumar is likely to report his findings on the party’s status and alleged controversial statements of certain ministers to Rahul and Kharge, sources said. “Our internal surveys have revealed that Congress is likely to win in about 60 of the 86 assembly constituencies it lost in the last Assembly elections. We heard the grievances of defeated candidates and instructed them to prepare for the next elections,” Shivakumar told reporters.
“The defeated candidates have been told not to sit idle but to start working. We will discuss with AICC and prepare an action plan on how to build the party in the remaining constituencies where the party is lagging,” he said. He said more such meetings with the winners and losers of Assembly and LS elections will be held along with CM Siddaramaiah.
He asked ministers to hold party workers’ meetings from March 23 to April 1 as he and Siddaramaiah too will conduct such meetings. Shivakumar said he will invite Rahul and Kharge to lay the foundation stone for new Congress offices, including the one in Bengaluru, in March. “I have also purchased land for the Ramanagara party office.
We are all beneficiaries of the party leadership, so we should help the party,” he said. He said party workers will be nominated to boards and corporations after discussions with the CM as he is going to streamline the list prepared by the selection panel headed by Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara.
Asked if he will consider suggestions of strategist Sunil Kanugolu on the party organisation, he clarified that the decision will be taken at the national level. “He is the CM’s political secretary. We will discuss and decide on the suggestions he gives for the benefit of the party,” he said. Shivakumar said that he and the CM will go to New Delhi after the latter recovers from his knee injury with the list of four to be nominated as MLCs.
“I am going to Delhi to meet the Union Jal Shakti Minister. When I went to a conference in Rajasthan, I raised the issue of our irrigation projects. They have given an appointment for Tuesday. The file should be forwarded through Somanna, who is from our state. If I get time, I will also meet AICC leaders,” Shivakumar said.