Infighting will not be tolerated, Rahul tells Congressmen

Faleiro panel to screen candidates

Keen to wrest back power in Karnataka, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday warned that indiscipline and infighting will not be tolerated at any cost in the party.

Rahul, who held a lengthy meeting with Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief G Parameshwara, Congress Legislative Party Leader Siddaramaiah and others, reportedly said responsibility will be fixed for all the leaders and the organisation will be made responsible in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

In the meeting, which was also attended by Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Jitendra Singh, he asked them to come up with a strategy for the Assembly polls.

Asking them to put a united fight in the Assembly poll, Rahul is learnt to have said that if fought together, the party could come to power without much difficulty.

He told them about performance-linked “reward and punishment system” in the party and suggested the need for a set of criteria for ticket distribution.

Meeting on Friday

He said the co-ordination committee headed by Defence Minister A K Antony will take major poll-related decisions, while a committee headed by former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro will screen the candidates before distributing tickets.

The co-ordination committee will hold its first meeting here on Friday to take stock of the preparation for the polls in the State.

The meeting will be attended by Parameshwara and Siddaramaiah.