Bengaluru, Oct 7 (DHNS): The Congress might be pulling out all stops to come back to power in the state, but the lackluster response from the party men in preparing for the upcoming Assembly election has apparently left the party leaders worried.

On Friday, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal is learnt to have expressed displeasure at not conducting the door-to-door campaign – Mane Manege Congress – effectively in the state, especially in Bengaluru and other towns.

“The party has received complaints that the legislators are not involving themselves in the campaign. It will not be tolerated. A booth comprises only 350 households. It will not be difficult to reach out to them,” Venugopal told the party legislators and the KPCC office-bearers.

The senior Congress leader held a series of meetings throughout the day, including the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), comprising MLAs and MLCs; and the office-bearers and reviewed the preparations for the Assembly elections. The door-to-door campaign is aimed at educating people about the state government’s achievements and the “failures” of the Centre.

Many Congress legislators in Bengaluru and other parts of the state had not been showing interest in forming booth-level committees, which are key for conducting the campaign. The KPCC had planned to cover 54,000 booths across all the 224 Assembly constituencies under the campaign by October 15 and later start organising district-wise rallies. But, the entire plan has gone haywire. The party has now extended the door-to-door campaign by two weeks, sources in the KPCC said.

Besides, efforts to end differences among the leaders at district levels by setting up co-ordination committees, has not yielded much result. As many as 10 district units are said to be facing the problem of infighting. For instance, a group of leaders from Chitradurga complained against its rival faction to Venugopal, even as he was holding a meeting at KPCC office to strengthen the social media campaign, the sources added.

Addressing the CLP meeting, Venugopal warned leaders against neglecting the door-to-door campaign. “The mood is in favour of the Congress in the state.

“The party can come back to power only if the leaders and workers work hard,” he said and directed all the MLAs to submit a status report on the campaign to the party within a week’s time.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the party is taking measures to sort out differences among the leaders at the district level. The government’s schemes have received good response from people. The legislators have to involve themselves in educating people about the schemes. Moreover, good rains have brought cheer among farmers. The present situation is conducive for the party to come back to power, he added.