Siddaramaiah, Kharge among five from Karnataka to attend Congress meet

BENGALURU: Five Congress leaders from Karnataka will attend the party’s three-day ‘Chintan Shibir’ of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) at Udaipur in Rajasthan from May 13. Six coordination panels consisting of 54 members will discuss various issues, including politics, economics, social justice and empowerment, farmer issues, agriculture and youth empowerment.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah, former minister Krishna Byre Gowda, former Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Gowda and Indian Youth Congress president BV Srinivas are among the senior Congress leaders from Karnataka who will attend the meeting. 

Congress sources told TNIE that each of the six committees will meet this month or early next month to exchange ideas before the Chintan Shibir.  “This is like a workshop to prepare a roadmap for the coming elections, mainly Gujarat Assembly polls this year and Karnataka polls in 2023. The outcome of the meet could be used to prepare the party’s manifesto which will be different for each state,” a Congress leader added.

Srinivas, who is taking part in the meet, said that this is an initiative for the party to prepare its strategy for the upcoming polls.  “Many issues covering most of the aspects will be discussed. We are hoping to get more feedback from participants to prepare better in the coming days’’ he added. 

Prof Rajeev Gowda said this meeting was happening after a gap of nine years. “Chintan Shibir gives us a larger direction on which we all can work towards. In this workshop, we discuss, analyse and plan,” he added.