Bitter bypoll lessons propel Congress to start groundwork early

BENGALURU: Though the Election Commission of India is yet to announce the dates for bypolls to three Assembly segments -- Maski, Basavakalyan and Sindagi -- and one Lok Sabha seat -- Belagavi -- in Karnataka, the Congress state unit has already started preparations to win all four.Having learnt its lessons from its bypoll debacles in 2019 and 2020, the Congress is leaving no stone unturned to win the ensuing bypolls. 

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), headed by D K Shivakumar, has constituted three committees headed by its working presidents, with 20 members each, to manage the party campaign in Belagavi LS seat and Maski and Basavakalyan assembly segments. A committee for Sindagi too will soon be constituted, KPCC sources said. At present, KPCC has one president and five working presidents.

While Eshwar Khandre (working president) and Humnabad MLA Rajashekar Patil have been made in-charge of Basavakalyan constituency, working president R Dhruvanarayan and former MP B V Nayak will manage the GOP’s prospects in Maski. KPCC working president Satish Jarkiholi and former home minister M B Patil will be in-charge of Belagavi LS seat. 

KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed told TNIE that the committees will work to strengthen the party from the grassroots. “This time, we have started our preparations much before the announcement of the bypoll schedule. These committees will oversee the party’s campaign in their respective constituencies and senior party leaders from Bengaluru will also campaign.”In 15 Assembly segments where bypolls were held in 2019, the Congress managed to win just two. In 2020, it drew a blank in Sira and RR Nagar constituencies.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah is expected to start his Ahinda (Kannada acronym for Minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) conventions after the budget, which is expected to be presented in the first week of March. The former chief minister will be holding these conventions in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburagi and Belagavi regions, which according to party insiders will help the Congress strengthen its base. DK Shivakumar, who is busy with his daughter’s wedding at present, will be travelling across the state from February 20.