bjp: BJP, Congress teams to assess Karnataka scene

Teams of BJP and Congress comprising senior party leaders will soon visit various districts of Karnataka to assess the political situation and prepare the respective roadmap of each party for the assembly elections to be held in more than a year.

The BJP has formed three teams under the leadership of general secretary in-charge Arun Singh, state unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel and chief minister Basavaraj Bommai to review the political situation and plan the campaign. Meanwhile, former chief ministers Siddaramaiah, Randeep Surjewala and DK Shivakumar will begin their Karnataka tour for the Congress on Tuesday. They are planning to visit all the areas of the state in the next 25 days.

A senior BJP leader said his party’s teams would reach out to constituency-level office-bearers, hold district-level meetings and collect feedback from grassroot workers. While controversial religious issues – a ban on the hijab in educational institutions, a boycott of Muslim vendors by Hindu groups and regulating loudspeakers in mosques – have dominated the political discourse for a few months, the BJP leadership shifted from the state unit to welfare and development. asked to perform. Governance model for elections. Former CM BS Yediyurappa has also been included in the team. According to a party functionary, senior leaders like Prahlad Joshi, Jagadish Shettar and KS Eshwarappa will also visit different districts.

Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, who is monitoring Karnataka’s development with the help of ‘political strategist’ Sunil Kanungo, asked leaders not to engage in one-sided talks but to ensure workers’ response to plan elections for each assembly seat. Said. He said, “That is why every leader of our party who is a decision maker is himself visiting different divisions. We first announced it, after which the BJP followed it up with the district review plan. With this exercise We want to ensure that our workers are heard outside,” said a Congress functionary.

The BJP teams will visit for 10 days from Wednesday and prepare a roadmap for the preliminary work and identify the seats where BJP faced a bigger challenge from Congress or JDS in 2018. There are leaders like Govind Kaljor in Arun Singh’s team. , R Ashok and CT Ravi while Kateel is led by Yeddyurappa, Ashwath Narayan and V Somanna. Singh is likely to start the tour with a visit to Belagavi on Wednesday. Bommai will lead the team to Mangalore, Shivamogga and Kalaburagi and Kateel’s team will travel to Dharwad and Bellary.

Originally published at Pen 18