The Congress high command has set itself an outer deadline of March 6 to make the party poll-ready in Karnataka, including a new team for the State Congress and appointment of various election panels.
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According to party sources, most of the decisions and appointments in Karnataka are expected to be completed soon after the impending Tripura elections (February 25), and latest by March 6. The immediate tasks at hand include the reconstitution of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) executive, as State President Mallikarjuna Kharge is still saddled with the team appointed during the presidentship of Allam Veerabhadrappa in 2002. The team selected by Kharge has been awaiting Central clearance for more than six months now.

This apart, the poll panels to be activated include the Coordination Committee, Campaign Committee and Publicity Committee.

The Coordination Committee, a recent add-on, is always headed by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary in charge of the State - in this case it would have to be Prithviraj Chauhan.
SM back?

However, with the high command apparently having given the nod to former chief minister and now Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna's wish to shed his gubernatorial responsibility and 'return to active politics', becoming the Coordination Committee chief maybe his most likely choice.

But that would mean a departure from precedent and is likely to have ripple effect elsewhere in the party, contend partymen. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh too had sought to be made PCC chief but the high command appointed Union Minister Suresh Pachauri, instead, on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Congress sources in Delhi said the party high command would take up Karnataka affairs at the earliest as Prithviraj Chauhan was currently busy with Tripura elections. But the effort would be to project a “young and newer team” to take on H D Deve Gowda and the BJP on the three planks of fighting “corruption, secularism and favouritism,” said the sources.