BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar held a virtual day-long meeting with Congress MLAs from 27 districts on Tuesday, for a routine review of constituency development work. However, subjects he discussed ranged from launching a new youth outreach network to enforcing caste balance in bureaucratic transfers— an exercise aimed at tightening the party organisation and also addressing local grievances.
For nearly seven hours, MLAs briefed the CM on priority concerns like drinking water, infrastructure, housing and irrigation. Shivakumar told the MLAs the government would look into their concerns and route them through senior ministers and officials before any funding decisions are taken. This form of interaction gives MLAs a formal channel to register their demands.
The meeting also focused on party structure. Shivakumar pressed the MLAs to prioritise setting up ‘Bharat Jodo Yuva Sanghas’ at the panchayat level, invoking the Bharat Jodo Yatra branding, and also recommended office-bearers for these units.
He claimed the initiative is “the outcome of my study over several years” which he hopes to institutionalise. He also gave instructions on constituting six-member ‘guarantee committees’ at the panchayat level, to ensure implementation of the five welfare schemes and asked district party presidents present at the meeting to begin construction of party offices.
Shivakumar told MLAs to stay out of transfers, quoting instructions from the party leadership that caste considerations or “casteism” must not influence decisions, and social justice should prevail. He also directed them to ensure that no eligible voter is wrongly excluded from the electoral rolls during the claims verification period of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). This gives the MLAs the responsibility of keeping a watch on the Election Commission process, underscoring how contentious the SIR has become in the party’s calculations ahead of future elections.
Legislators from Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru South are scheduled to meet the CM on Wednesday, to be followed by a separate sitting with MLCs.
