Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Feb 7: Congress party has decided to publish list of chosen candidates six months ahead of the coming assembly election in 2018. This was announced by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, Dr G Parameshwar. He also asked party leaders not to utter anything about S M Krishna in the presence of the media.
Parameshwar chaired the KPCC meeting held here on Monday February 6. "We have to be ahead of other parties in making advance preparations for the election. To avoid last minute confusion, the list should be ready six months earlier to the election. For this to happen, district units of the party should file reports about the way in which the 122 current legislators and 103 defeated candidates have been keeping touch with their respective constituencies and mass contact activities they are organizing," he stated.
The meeting of state level KPCC office bearers and district Congress presidents was held at KPCC office. Parameshwar stated that the leaders will hold consultation about preparing for election with All India Congress Committee office bearers. Before that, district presidents of the party have to file a report with KPCC within 45 days about the mass contact programmes of the MLAs and candidates who fought last election, popular opinion about these candidates, and also opinion about who will be the ideal choice to become next party candidate in the constituencies concerned.
As per the directions of the Election Commission, organizational elections of the party have to be held before June next. AICC has already published time table of election, and election will be held for all the 465 blocks in the state. The meeting decided to make preparations for this election. KPCC vice president, B L Shankar, was made in-charge of this election.
It is learnt that some of the office bearers expressed resentment at the way confusion was created among the people by implementing the system of coupons in public distribution system, duly complaining that opposition parties are cashing in on this contentious issue. They said that 70 percent of the people in the state are beneficiaries of ration card scheme, and such follies can have direct impact on the results in the next election. Some of them also urged the president to see that budget proposals should come to the rescue of the farmer community which is currently in distress, and that the chief minister should seek opinion of KPCC executive committee by convening a meeting before presentation of the budget. Parameshwar promised to discuss the issue with Siddaramaiah, sources said.